July 15, 2014: Volume LXXXII, No 14

Featuring 365 Industry-First Reviews of Fiction, Nonfiction and Children's & Teen

KIRKUS VOL. LXXXII, NO.

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REVIEWS

Elizabeth Spann Craig, the busiest writer in publishing p. 144

FICTION

Perfidia

by James Ellroy Set in 1940s Los Angeles, this is a war novel like no other. p. 16

on the cover Tiphanie Yanique’s

bewitching debut novel, Land of Love and Drowning, will make you believe in magic. p. 14

CHILDREN'S & TEEN

Brown Girl Dreaming

by Jacqueline Woodson The brilliant and oft-honored author presents a mesmerizing memoir in verse. p. 130

NONFICTION

The Nixon Defense

by John W. Dean Essential to anyone’s library of Nixoniana p. 50

from the editor’s desk:

Making Up the Rules at ALA B Y C la i b orne

Smi t h

Photo courtesy Thad Carter

“The rules are, I get to make up the rules for this thing,” Jon Scieszka said at the Ultimate Picture Book Sketch-Off during the recent American Library Association annual convention in Las Vegas. In 2008, Scieszka (it rhymes with “Fresca”) was named the inaugural National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature by the Library of Congress; he’s also the most reliably funny person in children’s publishing. His Guys Read series of anthologies, with their diverse contributor lists, has brought attention to the need to introduce boys to books they will engage with well.

Claiborne Smith The staff of Penguin Young Readers Group cooked up the Sketch-Off, a public trial by fire, when Scieszka issued orders to premier illustrators Anna Dewdney (wellknown for her Llama Llama series), Judy Schachner (of the best-selling Skippyjon Jones series), Loren Long (best known for his books about Otis, a friendly tractor) and Oliver Jeffers (his new one, Once Upon an Alphabet: Short Stories for All the Letters, will be out in October). ALA is packed full of panels with titles like “Care of Borrowed Special Collections: Playing Nice with Other People’s Toys” that are valuable for librarians, but the Sketch-Off was valuable in a different way, and not only because Dewdney drew her beloved llama wearing a bikini top and Schachner, an unassuming, reserved artist who gamely had fun with the proceedings, Skippyjon Jones creator Judy Schachner draws in the dark. had Skippyjon Jones smoking and wearing Anna Dewdney and emcee Jon Scieszka ogle her artwork. high heels. That rendition of the verbose Chihuahua prompted Scieszka to rename him Sluttyjon Jones. (To the illustrators’ credit, Scieszka required them to draw their characters on a Vegas vacation.)

At the largest annual convention for librarians, and in front of a crowd of librarians, the kids’ writers and illustrators at the Sketch-Off—all of them practiced in performing for kids and educators (at staying within the bounds, in other words)— stepped outside of their usual, kid-friendly roles. It was refreshing to see them work hard at letting their hair down in front of librarians. The illustrators worked frantically at their easels after Scieszka gave his marching orders. “I kind of love this about illustrators—they start working and you lose ’em,” he said. “I like it at school visits because all the attention goes to me, the writer.” Before the final, blindfolded challenge, Scieszka asked them to draw him. “Our next challenge is going to be worth maximum points: Do an author portrait of Jon Scieszka,” he said. “Your choice, with or without glasses. You can suck up a lot or go wrong and be horribly mean, Judy Schachner.”

for more re vi e ws and f eatures, vi si t u s on l i n e at kirkus.com.

Chairman H E R B E RT S I M O N # President & Publisher M A RC W I N K E L M A N Chief Operating Officer M E G L A B O R D E KU E H N mkuehn@kirkus.com Editor in Chief C laiborne S mith csmith@kirkus.com Managing/Nonfiction Editor E R I C L I E B E T R AU eliebetrau@kirkus.com Fiction Editor L aurie M uchnick lmuchnick@kirkus.com Children’s & Teen Editor VICKY SMITH vsmith@kirkus.com Mysteries Editor THOMAS LEITCH Contributing Editor G R E G O RY M c N A M E E Senior Indie Editor KAREN SCHECHNER kschechner@kirkus.com Indie Editor RYA N L E A H E Y rleahey@kirkus.com Indie Editor D avid R a p p drapp@kirkus.com Assistant Indie Editor M AT T D O M I N O mdomino@kirkus.com Assistant Editor CHELSEA LANGFORD clangford@kirkus.com Copy Editor BETSY JUDKINS Director of Kirkus Editorial JIM SPIVEY jspivey@kirkus.com Director of Technology E R I K S M A RT T esmartt@kirkus.com Marketing Communications Director SARAH KALINA skalina@kirkus.com Marketing Associate A rden Piacen z a apiacenza@kirkus.com Advertising/Client Promotions A nna C oo p er acooper@kirkus.com

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contents fiction

Index to Starred Reviews............................................................5 REVIEWS................................................................................................5 editor’s note.................................................................................... 6 On the Cover: Tiphanie Yanique..............................................14

The Kirkus Star is awarded to books of remarkable merit, as determined by the impartial editors of Kirkus.

Mystery..............................................................................................27 Science Fiction & Fantasy.......................................................... 35 Romance............................................................................................36

nonfiction Index to Starred Reviews..........................................................39 REVIEWS..............................................................................................39 editor’s note.................................................................................. 40 Lacy M. Johnson Returns From The Other Side...............54

children’s & teen Index to Starred Reviews..........................................................77 REVIEWS..............................................................................................77 editor’s note.................................................................................. 78 Nick Bertozzi Takes on Ernest Shackleton.....................94 interactive e-books...................................................................132 continuing series.......................................................................135

indie Index to Starred Reviews.........................................................137 REVIEWS.............................................................................................137 editor’s note................................................................................. 138 The Busiest Writer in Publishing.........................................144 INDIE BOOKS OF THE MONTH........................................................ 154 Appreciations: John O’Hara’s Brooding Characters................................................................155

Pulitzer Prize winner James McPherson examines the beleaguered president of the Confederacy. Read the review on p. 64. |

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on the web w w w. k i r k u s . c o m

driving force of Burgundy’s heritage. Check out our interview with Potter on his experience amid the vines at kirkus.com.

As the long-awaited resolution of the international best-seller All Souls trilogy, Deborah Harkness’ final chapter, The Book of Life, satisfies fans with a more-than-well-earned happy ending. Witch Diana Bishop and vampire Matthew Clairmont finally discover their origins and confront the threats to their star-crossed union. Diana’s impossible pregnancy with Matthew’s twins advances as various forces seek the couple’s separation, their destruction or both, mainly due to the covenant against liaisons across supernatural species lines. As in the previous two installments, there are healthy doses of action, colorful magic, angst-y romance and emotional epiphany, plus mansion-hopping across the globe, historical tidbits, and name-dropping of famous artworks and manuscripts. Harkness discloses to Kirkus details about the writing of the finale of the All Souls trilogy in an interview at kirkus.com.

Photo courtesy Marion Ettlinger

Check out these highlights from Kirkus’ online coverage at www.kirkus.com 9 Photo courtesy Robert Severi

Judith Frank’s All I Love And Know, a compelling follow-up to the author’s debut, Crybaby Butch, chronicles the difficult adjustments of a gay family on the brink of dissolution. It’s been four years since Matt Green, a self-described “normal, young, shallow queen,” fled New York’s whirl of drugs and casual sex to move in with the older, more sober Daniel Rosen in Northampton, Massachusetts. They’re on a plane to Tel Aviv to collect 5-year-old Gal and baby Noam, the two young children of Daniel’s twin brother and his sister-in-law, who have just been killed in a suicide bombing in Jerusalem. The paralyzing grief makes Daniel a virtual specter; he’s emotionally distant and constantly critical of Matt’s parenting style. “Strong storytelling driven by emotionally complex characters: first-rate commercial fiction,” our starred review stated in the June 1 issue. Check out our interview with Frank on the Kirkus website this month.

9 And be sure to check out our Indie publishing series, featuring some of today’s most intriguing self-published authors. We feature authors’ exclusive personal essays and reported articles on how they achieved their success in publishing. It’s a must-read resource for any aspiring author interested in getting readers to notice their new books.

Photo courtesy Stephanie Mohan

In January 2010, Aubert de Villaine, the famed proprietor of the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, the tiny, storied vineyard that produces the most expensive, exquisite wines in the world, received an anonymous note threatening the destruction of his priceless vines by poison—a crime that in the world of high-end wine is akin to murder—unless he paid a €1 million ransom. De Villaine believed it to be a sick joke, but that proved a fatal miscalculation. Maximillian Potter’s debut book about the episode, Shadows in the Vineyard, reflects on Potter’s exposure to Burgundy on an assignment for Vanity Fair in 2011, through which he had the first taste of the heady wine 1999 La Tâche, received personal guidance through the best wineries in the world by the vignerons and was introduced to the art of creating the “ghost in a glass.” The real star of the book, however, is de Villaine, who values the quality of wine over quantity and eventually becomes the face and the

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fiction THE KING

These titles earned the Kirkus Star:

Abdolah, Kader Translated by Forest-Flier, Nancy New Directions (352 pp.) $24.95 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-8112-2373-7

THE KENNEDY CONNECTION by R.G. Belsky...................................5 PERFIDIA by James Ellroy...................................................................16 THE DOG by Jack Livings....................................................................21 A GIRL IS A HALF-FORMED THING by Eimear McBride................22 FIVE DAYS LEFT by Julie Lawson Timmer.........................................25 HEROES ARE MY WEAKNESS by Susan Elizabeth Phillips............. 37

Political machinations meet religious tensions in 19th-century Persia.

Abdolah (My Father’s Notebook, 2006, etc.) writes in a style reminiscent of both newspaper reporting and fairy tale, even beginning with a “Once upon a time”—though the novel is set in a densely populated historical period rather than in the ether of timelessness. Shah Naser is the eponymous king, and he has all the complications one would expect for someone in his position: a powerful and cantankerous mother; a harem full of intriguing (in all senses) women; political advisers he doesn’t trust; and a volatile political situation, with Russia and England vying for spheres of influence. He also has a cat, Sharmin, who serves as a confidant, to whom he reads classic poetry and discloses his deepest thoughts and anxieties—and there’s much to be anxious about. Because of Persian domestic arrangements, he has literally hundreds of half brothers, and he has several of them hanged simply because he doesn’t trust them. The shah also has a grand vizier, Mirza Kabir, who has grand plans to modernize the country, but the shah’s mother, Mahdolia, has very different ideas. A resistance group develops involving Jamal Khan, who works with ayatollahs hostile to the shah’s liberal (personal rather than political) indulgences. And in the background lurk political representatives from Russia and England, full of rancor for each other and occasionally for the shah as well, though they each want to curry favor with him to satisfy their own agendas.

Abdolah is himself an Iranian political refugee who fled to Holland—his novel is translated from the Dutch—and he writes with great feeling and sensitivity about matters that still have resonance in the 21st century.

A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing

McBride, Eimear Coffee House (240 pp.) $24.00 Sept. 9, 2014 978-1-56689-368-8

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looking beyond labels I’ve been reading pretty much nonstop since the early 1970s, and I always thought books were books. I would read anything when I was a kid: Nancy Drew, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Somerset Maugham. (Though I’ve never figured out why my mother thought Of Human Bondage was a good choice for a fifth-grader.) Sure, the library separated children’s books from adult books and had a shelf of the then–newly emerging Young Adult titles in between, but I never thought about whether a book was a mystery, a fantasy, a “problem” book (hello, Go Ask Alice and Mr. and Mrs. Bo Jo Jones) or something else. In eighth grade, everyone was reading Judy Blume’s Forever and Danielle Steele’s The Promise without regard for labels.

There’s been a lot of debate recently about whether adults should feel ashamed of reading teen books and whether commercial fiction is taken as seriously by critics as literary fiction, which is now seen as a genre of its own. I’ve been trying to escape the debate by burrowing into a book, as usual, and Jo Walton’s Among Others has been just the thing. Walton’s heroine, Morwenna Phelps, grew up in the Welsh valleys with a mother who may be a witch; when she’s sent to Jo Walton boarding school in England, she finds refuge in a stack of science-fiction books she gets through interlibrary loan.

This book combines many genres and subgenres—fantasy, coming-of-age, British boarding school—and it’s the perfect reminder that it doesn’t matter how a book is classified as long as it’s good. In addition to telling an enchanting story, Walton provides a crash course in classic sci-fi through Mori’s reading list, which should keep me happily occupied for some time to come.

—Laurie Muchnick Laurie Muchnick is the fiction editor at Kirkus Reviews.

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THE EMERALD LIGHT IN THE AIR Stories

Antrim, Donald Farrar, Straus and Giroux (176 pp.) $22.00 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-0-374-28093-2 Couples unravel and anxieties are revealed in this batch of urbane, wry and interior stories enlivened by Antrim’s talent for gamesmanship with words.

Antrim’s debut story collection—his first book of fiction since The Verificationist (2000)—sticks to a remarkably narrow set of premises. In “Pond, With Mud,” a hard-drinking New Yorker is losing his grip on reality and growing distant from his fiancee and young would-be stepson; in “Another Manhattan,” a mentally ill New Yorker is failing at the simple act of buying his wife some flowers before dinner; in “Ever Since,” a couple grows strained at a boozy New York literary party. This repetition of setups would be tiring were Antrim not so capable of conjuring a variety of tones and surprising amount of subtlety from these common predicaments. In “Another Manhattan,” for instance, the man’s illness is slowly and powerfully revealed by his inability to stop the florist from adding more and more flowers to the bouquet; as the gift absurdly blossoms, his despair falls into sharp relief. “An Actor Prepares” is a more surrealist look at emotional fissures narrated by a college acting teacher whose guidance to his cast of A Midsummer Night’s Dream reveals both his sexual fixations and romantic failures. And in the closing title story, a man left suicidal by a broken relationship heads back home and, through a series of misadventures, winds up navigating his car through a forest.

“The Emerald Light in the Air” refers to the sickly tint in the air before a storm, which captures the overall mood of these stories, where bad news seems to be just about ready to come raining down. But there’s wisdom and humor here, too; Antrim is attuned to the way couples struggle to make themselves heard or obscure their true feelings.

A deceptively spiky set of meditations on romantic failure.

STONE MATTRESS Nine Tales

Atwood, Margaret Talese/Doubleday (256 pp.) $25.95 | Sep. 16, 2014 978-0-385-53912-8 Clever tales about writers, lovers and other weirdos.

This, explains Atwood in the acknowledgements, is a book of tales, not stories, which means that it’s removed “at least slightly from the realm of mundane works and days”; you could say the same about most of the 40-plus preceding works from

this playful, sharp-edged and politically alert author, now 74 (MaddAddam, 2013, etc.). Many of the characters in this collection are no longer young, but their situations, and the sentences that describe them, are fresh and vigorous, including descriptions of sex acts and profanity as necessary—don’t let the old-lady thing fool you. The first three tales, which are the highlight of the book, feature aging writers and their bohemian circle, interweaving funerals and ghostly conversations with accounts of old conquests and betrayals. “Young Constance felt very lucky to have been taken up by Gavin, who was four years older than she was and knew a lot of other poets, and was lean and ironic and indifferent to the norms of society and grimly satirical, as poets were then. Perhaps they’re still like that. Constance is too old to know.” Video games, trendy literary criticism and Dropbox (is that an “indoor catpoo station”?) all play a role. “The Dead Hand Loves You” considers another writer late in his career.

Young Jack sold shares in his fledgling novelistic effort to his roommates to pay his rent but decades later will do anything (yes) to get them back. The revenge theme continues in “Stone Mattress,” in which a woman meets her erstwhile date rapist on an Alaskan cruise and he doesn’t even recognize her. Fun to learn in the endnote that Atwood and her husband, Graeme Gibson, started this story as a way to entertain their fellow passengers on an Adventure Canada yacht.

Up to her old tricks and not dropping a card.

NO MAN’S LAND Fiction From a World at War

Ayrton, Pete–Ed. Pegasus (504 pp.) $15.95 paper | Sep. 15, 2014 978-1-60598-649-4

“Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures,” Emerson wrote, a thought that underpins 46 short pieces assembled by Ayrton (The Alphabet Garden, 1995) to define the “treacherous blundering tragi-comedy” that history labels World War I. Ayrton has drawn from writings of major authors recognized for work of that era—William Faulkner, Erich Maria Remarque, Siegfried Sassoon—but readers seeking a new perspective will also find fiction set in the Balkans, Gallipoli, and among mountain campaigns where Serbs, Croats, Greeks, Turks and Romanians fought and bled, froze and died. Most striking are pieces written by former Volunteer Aid Detachment workers, mainly upper- and middle-class women who left lives of privilege to find themselves among shot-off faces, gassed lungs and amputated limbs in “stinking yellow water and grey-green foaming soap, with bloody bandages and cotton wool floating in it. Suppurating, nauseating cotton wool.” Mary Borden was a wealthy Chicago woman who personally financed a field hospital. Borden also worked as a nurse, and her pieces range from the melancholy to a spare dialogue script of doctors crammed into an operating tent—a lung lacerated by three bullet holes is patched, a gangrenous leg is amputated, and a man

with a mortal stomach wound begs for water. Some pieces are reportorial. Some are surrealist. Others are grotesque, such as Faulkner’s “Crevasse,” in which marching troops plunge into a mass grave. And then there are the absurdist, such as Hašek’s “Švejk Goes to the War.” Every piece gives voice to the “timeless confusion, a chaos of noise, fatigue, anxiety and horror” that is war on the industrial scale. American readers will appreciate the perspectives of writers who focus on the experiences of colonial troops or the celebrated German Ernst Jünger, or Vahan Totovents, who explores the origins of Armenian genocide.

It’s a book to be read at random, too intense to digest in a single reading, but a worthy addition to any history buff’s library.

A MAN CALLED OVE

Backman, Fredrik Atria (352 pp.) $25.00 | Jul. 15, 2014 978-1-4767-3801-7

Originally published in Sweden, this charming debut novel by Backman should find a ready audience with English-language readers.

The book opens helpfully with the following characterizations about its protagonist: “Ove is fifty-nine. He drives a Saab. He’s the kind of man who points at people he doesn’t like the look of, as if they were burglars and his forefinger a policeman’s torch.”

What the book takes its time revealing is that this dyed-in-thewool curmudgeon has a heart of solid gold. Readers will see the basic setup coming a mile away, but Backman does a crafty job revealing the full vein of precious metal beneath Ove’s ribs, glint by glint. Ove’s history trickles out in alternating chapters—a bleak set of circumstances that smacks an honorable, hardworking boy around time and again, proving that, even by early adulthood, he comes by his grumpy nature honestly. It’s a woman who turns his life around the first time: sweet and lively Sonja, who becomes his wife and balances his pessimism with optimism and warmth. By 59, he’s in a place of despair yet again, and it’s a woman who turns him around a second time: spirited, knowing Parvaneh, who moves with her husband and children into the terraced house next door and forces Ove to engage with the world. The back story chapters have a simple, fablelike quality, while the current-day chapters are episodic and, at times, hysterically funny. In both instances, the narration can veer toward the preachy or overly pat, but wry descriptions, excellent pacing and the juxtaposition of Ove’s attitude with his deeds add plenty of punch to balance out any pathos.

In the contest of Most Winning Combination, it would be hard to beat grumpy Ove and his hidden, generous heart.

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BEFORE, DURING, AFTER

Bausch, Richard Knopf (352 pp.) $26.95 | Aug. 12, 2014 978-0-307-26626-2

The horror of 9/11 intersects with the horror of rape in this latest from Bausch (Something Is Out There, 2010, etc.).

Natasha Barrett and Michael Faulk meet at a dinner party in the Washington, D.C., suburbs. She’s the top aide to a Republican senator; he’s an Episcopal priest in Memphis. Natasha’s still recovering from the messy end of an affair; Faulk’s been bruised by a divorce. There’s an age gap (she’s 32, he’s 48), but love leaps across it; they will marry and leave their professions. Natasha isn’t credible as a political animal; Faulk has lost “something unnameable” in carrying out his pastoral duties. The future looks rosy (Faulk’s trust fund will cushion them), but hard times are coming for this pleasant, fuzzily defined couple.

It’s September 2001. Faulk is in New York for a friend’s wedding and has mentioned visiting the twin towers. Natasha is vacationing in Jamaica with Constance, an older woman, when the news breaks. Is Faulk safe? The phones are down; Natasha is frantic. She starts drinking heavily, as do the other hotel guests.

On the beach at night, she allows a handsome Cuban-American a kiss. Things get out of hand; he rapes her. She can’t confide in the cynical Constance, who’s seen that consensual kiss but not the aftermath. By the time she reunites with Faulk in Memphis, she’s a nervous wreck. Bausch faithfully reproduces the high anxiety of the time, having us ponder the irony that strangers, rubbed raw, confide in each other while Natasha, consumed by irrational guilt, cannot confide in her darling Faulk, who knows something is terribly wrong. As the situation drags on, it’s hard not to become impatient with Bausch’s failure to force a resolution.

Disappointing; the 9/11 material is a distraction from Bausch’s core story: the plight of the rape victim. (Author tour to Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle)

THE KENNEDY CONNECTION

Belsky, R.G. Atria (352 pp.) $16.00 paper | Aug. 12, 2014 978-1-4767-6232-6 An engrossing journalistic thriller inspired by the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Two murders occur in different parts of New York City. The tenuous connection between them is the discovery of the uncommon Kennedy half dollar coin at both scenes. Police make little of it, but disgraced Daily News reporter Gil Malloy thinks it odd.

Is a JFK-obsessed serial killer making a statement around the 8

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50th anniversary of the president’s murder? Malloy has already ruined his own reputation with a big prostitution story he seems to have fabricated, but “maybe we do get second chances in life,” as he speculates. Lucky to still have a job, he persuades his editor that the Kennedy connection is worth pursuing. Meanwhile, a young man dies of a heart attack 15 years after being shot in the spine by an unknown assailant. Malloy promises the victim’s mother he will investigate her son’s shooting, but dazzled by the prospect of a journalistic coup, he spends all his time on the JFK case. He receives a Kennedy half dollar in the mail at his newsroom, and colleagues think he might have fabricated this detail to support yet another bogus story. A manuscript about the JFK assassination turns up, written by a previously unknown son of Lee Harvey Oswald. Malloy soon wonders whether Oswald, said to have been a mediocre marksman, could have been the lone gunman. Malloy and others face dire threats as he digs for the truth and displays his true character. Will this story blow up in his face as the hooker tale did? Author Belsky once worked at the Daily News and delivers a fast-moving and well-plotted yarn with twists the reader probably won’t see coming. They’re mostly bad news for Malloy, but that’s good news for the reader.

The truth about that awful day in November 1963 may never be known, but it’s provided grist for a terrific story.

PAINTED HORSES

Brooks, Malcolm Grove (336 pp.) $26.00 | Aug. 5, 2014 978-0-8021-2164-6

A mid-1950s oater that wants to come over all cowboy and sensitive at the same time.

Catherine Lemay, the heroine of Brooks’ debut, is a young archaeologist who’s seen the aftermath of war poking around in the rubble of London. John H—she thinks it could stand for “horses,” but “hell raiser” is a reasonable candidate—rides the Western fence line, following the mustangs. He’s known war up close, a member of the last American horse cavalry unit to see combat, fighting the Germans in Italy. It stands to reason that, Montana being a small state and all, they’ll meet and become intertwined like two wind-blasted strands of barbed wire. When Mr. H funs, he funs, but when he and Catherine get serious, well….

There’s plenty to be serious about apart from sad reflections on the war, for a dam is coming to the coulee in which the mustangs run, and both Catherine and John H have to make a stand: Do they serve progress, or do they fight for what’s real about the West? Brooks does a good job of plotting, following parallel stories that speak to that large question through characters who are more than just symbols—though they’re that, too. There’s some fine writing here, especially when it comes to horses and the material culture that surrounds them, and when it comes to Western landscapes, too, for Brooks knows that in good Western writing, the land is always a

character. There’s also some overwriting, along the lines of “[s]he wanted Audrey Williams to keep talking, wanted to know her story too, the fragments and pieces and the buried mysteries, wanted the whole vicarious treasure of it.” A little of that goes a long way, especially when Brooks places himself inside Catherine’s head—and, from time to time, elsewhere in her body.

It’s a sight better than The Bridges of Madison County, but it’s a kindred project: Boy meets girl under open sky, boy kisses girl, girl emotes, and then it’s a whole new shooting match. (Author tour to Denver, Missoula, Montana, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle)

MEAN STREAK

Brown, Sandra Grand Central Publishing (304 pp.) $26.00 paper | Aug. 19, 2014 978-1-4555-8112-2 The perennially best-selling Brown checks in with another “woman-in-peril– hunky-guy-to-the-rescue” romantic thriller.

Emory, a wealthy Atlanta-based pediatrician who runs marathons, is training for an upcoming race in a remote mountainous region of North Carolina. She’s left behind her self-centered husband, Jeff, with whom she’s had one of their frequent arguments; that’s fine with Jeff, who plans to spend Emory’s absence with his mistress. But then Emory’s plans go very wrong. She wakes up injured and disoriented in a strange cabin with a tall, gorgeous man who refuses to divulge his identity. The mystery man tells her she had an accident on the trail and he brought her back there to recover. Emory suffered a head wound and is both woozy and mistrustful of the stranger, but after a day or so, when she feels well enough to leave, she discovers the mountain road is covered with ice, socked in with a pea-soup fog and not at all navigable, so she heads back to the cabin without even trying to get home. As Emory falls in love with the tall stranger, her petulant husband comes under scrutiny by two small-town police detectives who believe he might not be telling them everything about his missing wife. Brown throws in some steamy sex, a mysterious mistress and an FBI agent who’s searching for the mystery man. Brown knows how to pace her stories so fans will keep turning the pages, but while her prose is clean and efficient, readers searching for characters who rise above the stereotypical will be sorely disappointed in this plot-driven entry.

Brown’s novels share several qualities: They’re entertaining, competently written, full of twists and turns, but ultimately forgettable.

SKIN OF THE WOLF

Cabot, Sam Blue Rider Press (432 pp.) $26.95 | Jul. 31, 2014 978-0-399-16296-1

A supernatural slugfest that aspires to be literature but collapses under its own weight.

In calculus, the derivative of a derivative is a—well, a tangent gone astray. So it is with this book, which echoes many, many others without quite finding its own way. A wolf running wild in Central Park? Jim Harrison, check. Shape-shifters versus the children of the night? Charlaine Harris, check. Secret rituals of the Catholic Church exposed? Dan Brown, check.

And let’s not forget James Fenimore Cooper. If this were parody, all would be forgiven. Assuming best-case homage, the project is still a curious one; one supposes it’s a mortgage-paying enterprise for Cabot (Blood of the Lamb, 2013)—the pseudonym

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“Southern gothic meets Euro hipness in Catalan novelist Cantero’s inventive, enjoyable outing in postmodern mystery writing.” from the supernatural enhancements

of Carlos Dew, a literature professor in Rome, and S.J. Rozan, a crime fiction writer in Brooklyn—and not an effort to break new ground and/or raise the bar in the realm of supernatural fiction. That said, the storytelling is competent, with all the requisite window-rattling portents: “Natural order would be restored, ancient wrongs would be righted. It would take time; but once it began it could not be stopped any more than a raging fire could be hounded back into lightning in the sky.” Hounded: a tasty word for a loup-garou, that. The wolves who are men wish to take possession of a certain object to help the transformation along, but the vampires, some of whom are perpetual grad students, being undead and unpressed for time and all, seem determined to get in the way, as do the human scholars, priests, and assorted cops and civilians who get bound up in the tale. A useful takeaway: If you should happen to become a vampire, it’s easy to outlive your Social Security payments, so take a thought lest you find yourself “facing eternity penniless.” And did we mention the soupçon of Braveheart at the end of the whole shebang?

Entertaining enough. Still, in the words of the golem, who’s bound to turn up in the next installment, if current trends hold: Meh. (Agent: Steve Axelrod)

THE SUPERNATURAL ENHANCEMENTS

Cantero, Edgar Doubleday (368 pp.) $26.95 | Aug. 12, 2014 978-0-385-53815-2

Southern gothic meets Euro hipness in Catalan novelist Cantero’s inventive, enjoyable outing in postmodern mystery writing.

Take a mysterious mansion, “plus a noseless suspect, a dead criminal wanted in six states, one fugitive, a missing lawyer, seventeen people in the morgue, two in surgery, and lots of paperwork,” and you’ve got the makings of a scenario that’s surely good for setting tongues wagging in small-town Virginia. Yet most of the good citizens of Point Bless have long been unaware of the goings-on at the Wells mansion, where the ghosts of suicides wander among dark corridors and hidden rooms. Cantero lets us know at the outset that we’re in on a very long joke, with winking through-the-fourthwall asides (“I’ve noticed that all manuscripts are bad; any book randomly opened in a friend’s house is good; the same book in a bookstore is bad. When this story is completed, that beginning will turn better”). Any story that features a lawyer named Glew and a butler named Strückner is automatically promising, never mind hesitant openings, and our protagonist’s sidekick is a welcome force of nature, a mute Irish girl who is both amanuensis and ninja. And if that protagonist starts off the proceedings wideeyed and naïve, delighted by such small things as rural cafes with “many sauce bottles and thingies against the glass,” he emerges as a capable player in a game of poltergeists, hollowed-out books, malevolent masterminds and sundry secrets in a setting that wanders between real and dream worlds, alternate realities blending with elective affinities.

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Freemasonry, of course, figures into the equation.

Quirky in presentation and good fun throughout, Cantero’s yarn pleases at every turn.

THE HOLLYWOOD TRILOGY A Couple of Comedians, The True Story of Jody McKeegan, and Turnaround

Carpenter, Don Counterpoint (420 pp.) $16.95 paper | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-61902-342-0

A re-issue of three Hollywood novels by a West Coast author and screenwriter who died in 1995, following the recent publication of his last novel, Fridays at Enrico’s (2014).

Meet the comedy team of Jim and David. A Couple of Comedians (1979) is a raunchy, high-spirited ramble from David’s Northern California ranch to Hollywood, where they make one movie a year followed by a stint at a Vegas nightclub. Yes, they’re famous; they’re also free spirits, chasing chicks and scoring dope. David is the narrator, and his view of Hollywood is nuanced, for among “Hollywood’s collection of contemptibles” is one of the original moguls who, combining self-interest and magnanimity, gave them their winning big-screen formula.

David skips the moviemaking—it’s boring—but we feel a frisson before their nightclub act. Jim may be having a breakdown: Will he show? Less quirky is The True Life Story of Jody McKeegan (1975). Jody has had a hard life. In her hometown of Portland, Oregon, she watched her big sister die after a back-alley abortion. Failing to find acting work in New York, she became “a thief, a pimp, a blackmailer, a junkie.” In Hollywood, however, close to washed up at 35, she catches a break. She meets the producer Harry Lexington; they fall in love. Jody’s perfect for a role in his current movie. Overcoming his scruples about casting girlfriends, Harry gets her the part. But will self-destructive Jody keep it together? The suspense goes down to the wire.

Turnaround (1981) has less edge and energy than the other novels. None of the three principals (two studio executives and an aspiring screenwriter) has the vital spark of Jody or those hellraising comedians. The real story, the painful coming-of-age of a screenwriter, something close to Carpenter’s heart, arrives too late to grab us.

Two of these insider’s novels, at least, give fresh impetus to the Carpenter revival.

OUTLAWS

Cercas, Javier Translated by McLean, Anne Bloomsbury (384 pp.) $26.00 | Aug. 12, 2014 978-1-62040-325-9 The spectacular rise and dizzying fall of a legendary Spanish desperado.

Memory, contrition, love and loss all permeate this thoughtful contemplation on the generation of radical adolescents that emerged in Spain in its post-Franco years. With an autobiographical air, Cercas (The Anatomy of a Moment, 2011, etc.) crafts a vibrant yet realistic portrait of two teenage boys who find themselves in very different circumstances in adulthood. The voice of the novel comes from Ignacio Cañas, a retired criminal defense lawyer who is being interviewed by an unnamed journalist about his early relationship with a charismatic criminal, Antonio Gamallo, who is known to Spain as “El Zarco.” In the book’s first half, we learn how the bookish, fainthearted Cañas falls in with the blue-eyed Zarco and his exotic female companion, Tere, in the late 1970s. Their deal is based around a simple bargain: “You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.” The drug-fueled, rebellious trio soon graduates from burglary to robbing banks. When Cañas is freed by a sympathetic police officer named Inspector Cuenca, it sets him on a different path than his felonious friends. A quarter-century later, Tere reappears in his office with María Vela, Zarco’s girlfriend, with a plea for Cañas to lead the outlaw’s defense. It’s a compelling, drawn-out story with rich period detail and emotional depth.

The first half has the flavor of Jim Carroll’s post-punk autobiographical novels, while the chronicle of Zarco’s criminal career recalls the many books and films about French gangster Jacques Mesrine. It’s also hard not to feel the swirl of emotions experienced by Cañas as he wrestles with his feelings about his childhood friend and the long attraction he’s held for Tere, whose role in keeping Zarco’s secrets leaves her largely at arm’s length from the rest of the world. It’s unusual for a story about popular folklore to be so grounded, but Cercas navigates this difficult maneuver with grace.

A rewarding and complex novel about finding the man behind the myths.

ADULTERY

Coelho, Paulo Translated by Costa, Margaret Jull; Perry, Zoë Knopf (272 pp.) $24.95 | Aug. 19, 2014 978-1-101-87408-0 A Swiss journalist strives to redress the meaninglessness of her life with even more meaningless sexual encounters in Coelho’s latest pseudo-philosophical screed.

Linda, a respected newspaper reporter in Geneva, is happily married to a handsome, wealthy and generous financier. The couple is blessed with beautiful and well-behaved children, at least from what we see of the progeny, which isn’t much. The vicissitudes of domestic life aren’t Coelho’s concern unless they offer a pretext for platitudes about the eternal verities and The Things That Matter. When she interviews Jacob, a former flame from school days who’s now a rising politician, Linda behaves professionally right until she administers a parting blow job. The ensuing affair jolts Linda out of the low-grade depression she has been experiencing despite her enviable lifestyle. Her adulterous behavior disturbs her, however, since she can’t explain her own motives. After briefly trying therapy, she consults a Cuban shaman, to no avail (except to generate a successful series of in-depth features on occult healing). Her bafflement is shared by the reader, who will be puzzled by the total lack of any convincing reason why she should be so infatuated with Jacob, who, in addition to being very thinly portrayed, apparently can’t decide whether his amorous strategy should be sensitive and romantic or something 50 or so shades greyer.

After a close call—Jacob’s astute spouse almost exposes her— Linda decides that the fling isn’t worth destroying lives over, as if these shallow existences were under any threat to begin with.

Along the way to this realization, Coelho milks each opportunity to preach—by way of endless interior monologues, quotes from Scripture and talky scenes—sermons about love, marriage, sexual attraction, evolutionary theory and every other imponderable he can muster. Occasional interesting tidbits about the novel’s setting, the French-speaking Swiss canton of Vaud, are not enough to redeem the pervasive mawkishness.

More trite truthiness from Coelho.

SWEETSHOP OF DREAMS

Colgan, Jenny Sourcebooks Landmark (432 pp.) $14.99 paper | Aug. 1, 2014 978-1-4022-8183-9

Rosie Hopkins has settled into life in London—with “settle” being the operative word—when her job gets put on hiatus and her mother convinces her to help an elderly great-aunt who lives in a country village and owns a sweet shop.

Rosie’s life is fine. She has a nice apartment, a steady nursing job and a loyal boyfriend, who, OK, might be a little annoying since he doesn’t help at all around the house and plays video games all the time. But really, she doesn’t have anything to complain about, does she? When her hospital gets renovated, however, and she finds herself doing temp nursing jobs, things seem more of a struggle, and she begins to question whether what she has is really what she wants. At her mother’s request, Rosie travels to the small village of Lipton to help her great-aunt Lilian get back on her feet after an injury, then finds herself falling under the spell of the village and the people there, especially the local doctor; the single mother who helps out in Lilian’s shop; and the |

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enigmatic Stephen, who’s bitterly healing from an injury himself.

Rosie soon discovers she’s more at home in tiny Lipton than she ever was in London. Colgan’s novel celebrates small-town pleasures as Rosie realizes her existence in London pales in comparison to the life she’s creating in her new home. Interspersed with Rosie’s tale of self-discovery are occasional vignettes of Lilian’s youth and her own heartbreaking experience with romance, which becomes a cautionary tale when Rosie’s love life goes awry.

The story is a little slow at times, but it’s a pace and tone that fits well with the overall theme of the book.

A sweet and delicious journey. (Agent: Deborah Schneider)

PRAGUE SUMMER

Condran, Jeffrey Counterpoint (288 pp.) $26.00 | Aug. 12, 2014 978-1-61902-310-9

A couple’s world is turned upside down when a friend visits in this Kafkaesque literary thriller by debut novelist Condran.

Married for a decade, Americans Henry and Stephanie have settled into a comfortable life in Prague, where she works for the State Department and he owns a shop specializing in rare books. Condran channels his love of literature and the city of Prague through Henry’s many allusions to literary works and Czech landmarks.

When Stephanie’s old college friend Selma Al-Khateeb plans a visit, she immediately jumps into protective mode. Stephanie and her former roommates always considered Selma special, the best among them, but lately, Selma’s life has been nothing short of surreal. Her husband, Mansour, arrested under the Patriot Act, has been held in federal custody for more than a year without being charged, and Selma’s exhausted all avenues of help. Stephanie and Henry view Selma’s visit as a chance for her to catch her breath and have a diversion from these disturbing events, but for Selma, her visit holds a deeper purpose.

She’s damaged and frightened, and Henry’s strong reaction to her presence results in unanticipated feelings and actions that threaten to overpower his life. On the one hand, he continues to conduct business, while on the other, he takes Selma on a routine literary tour of Prague that ends with a frantic plea.

Unwilling to cross certain boundaries, Henry tries to help but knows his attempt is more an empty gesture than an effective solution. Eventually, a business trip to evaluate and catalog a rare-book collection changes his entire perspective.

Fluctuating between wry observation and solemn introspection, this is an expressive, tantalizing and ingeniously constructed study of human character. (Author events in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh)

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KEEP YOUR FRIENDS CLOSE

Daly, Paula Grove (336 pp.) $25.00 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-0-8021-2320-6

Daly’s sophomore effort tackles the difficult subjects of adultery and betrayal.

Natty multitasks, and that’s a problem. She’s the successful owner of an ultrahigh-end hotel in England, sharing duties with her handsome husband, Sean.

The couple has two daughters and lives that are so busy they’re hardly in the same room at the same time—and they rarely have time for sex. When their youngest daughter, Felicity, suffers a ruptured appendix while on a school trip to France, Natty rushes to her side, leaving a visitor, her recently arrived college buddy, Eve, a psychologist on the lecture circuit, to take care of Sean and their other daughter, Alice. And take care of them she does. Eve launches into an immediate campaign to seduce Sean, and by the time Natty returns with Felicity, Sean is no longer hers. Hurt and angry, Natty embarks on a campaign to get her family back and soon finds that everything she thought she knew was an illusion. In the meantime, a confrontation between Natty and Eve brings back police detective Joanne Aspinall, who first surfaced in Daly’s debut novel (Just What Kind of Mother Are You?, 2013). Telling the tale in alternating voices—first person for Natty and third person for Joanne— Daly takes multiple moving parts and weaves them into a cohesive whole. There’s little mystery since the reader knows from the outset that Eve is cold and conniving, not caring whom she hurts; yet the author still manages to hold the reader’s attention. Daly has grown considerably since her somewhat clumsy debut, but this time, she turns in a not-quite-perfect piece of fiction that still wins with its immensely likable heroine and her dastardly feminine foil.

Although the idea that a happy marriage would dissolve in two weeks’ time strikes a false note, Daly’s second outing proves absorbing. (Agent: Jane Gregory)

THE MADMEN OF BENGHAZI

de Villiers, Gérard Translated by Rodarmor, William Vintage Crime/Black Lizard (272 pp.) $14.95 paper | Aug. 5, 2014 978-0-8041-6931-8

Best-selling French novelist de Villiers, who died in 2013, wrote more than 200 books about suave Austrian spy Malko Linge; this is the first to be translated into English in decades.

Linge, who comes from the Austrian nobility, is a freelance spy for the CIA; he’s the go-to guy when the target is gorgeous and needs wooing. This time he’s working for the Company’s station chief in Cairo, trying to secure top-level intelligence on

a man the Americans hope to deposit on the Libyan throne. A wealthy playboy, Ibrahim al-Senussi has been seduced by the idea of returning to his family’s ancestral stomping grounds and running the country. He takes his gorgeous girlfriend, a model named Cynthia Mulligan, with him to Cairo for a series of meetings with men who may or may not be on his side. While terrorists plot to kill the would-be king, Linge romances his blonde bombshell of a girlfriend to help figure out what he’s up to while trying to stay alive in a rapidly evolving political climate that heats up with the fall of the notorious Libyan dictator. The author was a journalist, and his intimate knowledge of regional geopolitics gives this book a ripped-from-the-headlines feel; the plot, however, is pedestrian. Linge, brought in because he is supposedly an expert at romancing women, tends to twiddle his thumbs a lot. And the “master spy” doesn’t seem very competent: At one point he and his fellow agents search for a known terrorist in the terrorist’s homeland by stopping at gas stations and asking if anyone knows where he lives.

A ton of coincidences and a dry, journalistic approach to fiction render this spy novel no threat to Ian Fleming’s legacy.

collection of shorter anecdotes, characters appear and cleverly reappear in different phases of their lives with different partners. The only misstep in the book is the novella “Jack and the Mad Dog,” a well-crafted but tedious postmodern fable about “THAT Jack, the giant-killer of the stories,” that is out of keeping with the rest of the collection.

The rest of the book is punctuated by sharp insights and wry observations on the human condition, featuring strong, idiosyncratic characters having small epiphanies in their small towns. (Author tour to Oxford, Raleigh and Asheville, North Carolina, Nashville and Atlanta)

MR. TALL A Novella and Stories

Earley, Tony Little, Brown (224 pp.) $25.00 | $12.99 e-book | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-316-24612-5 978-0-316-24611-8 e-book

Over several decades, in small towns scattered throughout North Carolina and Tennessee, young and old couples attempt to connect in Earley’s (The Blue Star, 2008, etc.) quirky and penetrating story collection.

In “Haunted Castles of the Barrier Isles,” a long-married couple is bereft when their only child, a college freshman, is less than happy to see them during a surprise birthday visit.

With nothing better to do, the couple embarks on a trip to the nearby barrier islands, where they wander into a lackluster beach resort soon to be swallowed up by the encroaching ocean. This desultory vacation is colored by the shock and disappointment of the college visit, and their resulting marital crisis is described with mastery and subtlety. In “Mr. Tall,” 16-year-old newlywed Plutina Scroggs sets off in 1932 with her new husband on a seemingly endless rail and mule journey from her hometown to his remote mountain cottage. Earley conveys with genuine humor and insight Plutina’s bewilderment about sex and her initial regrets about the hasty marriage. Plutina later becomes obsessed with her never-glimpsed nearest neighbor, a hermit known as Mr. Tall, during the long weeks she spends alone. These first two stories are the strongest and most memorable of the collection. Additional tales are linked through the use of repeating characters; Plutina reappears as an aging neighbor in “The Cryptozoologist,” in which a new widow becomes infatuated with the yetilike “skunk apes” she glimpses in the woods behind her home. In “Just Married,” a |

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INTERVIEWS & PROFILES

Tiphanie Yanique

There’s more to island life than tasty margaritas

By Megan Labrise

Photo courtesy Debbie Grossman

Tiphanie Yanique’s bewitching debut novel will make you believe in magic.

“Magic is everything. I actually think that most people walk around the world believing deeply in magic,” says Yanique, whose novel, Land of Love and Drowning, is just out. “Otherwise, how could you fall in love? Why would you have children? All these things that are completely illogical acts that we seek out, allow to happen. We hunt them down, and they have no sense in them. For me, magic is just honoring that reality.”

Her novel recounts the everyday enchantment of a notable Virgin Islands family, beginning at the turn of the 20th century. Before perishing in an unusual shipwreck, Capt. Owen Arthur Bradshaw begets three gifted children of exceptional beauty: Eldest daugh14

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ter Eeona’s captivating visage could sink a thousand ships (and likely did the one), yet she remains unmarried. Family historian Anette has an incomplete talent for premonitions, sensing comings but not goings. Half brother Jacob is possessed of the ability to transcend position and place. Still, he can’t escape a star-crossed love. Jacob is the son of the captain’s lover, Rebekah, a sorceress in her own right: “She could make the blood in your body course saltwater—burn you from the inside out,” Yanique writes. “Erode your womb as if it were tin until the eggs inside rattled like a beggar shaking a cup.”

Yanique writes with a distinct lyricism that may conjure comparisons to Jamaica Kincaid. Born in St. Thomas, she was raised by her grandmother, a children’s librarian, who instilled an early love of storytelling. For top-tier material, there was no need to look further than family history: Her great-grandfather was a captain who famously went down with his ship, the Fancy Me, orphaning his daughter.

Indeed, the germ of the novel lies in history, not myth. Early on, her grandmother told her that “some people have to die before you can publish this book,” Yanique recalls, not because she was writing about anyone in particular, but because her grandmother “felt it was going to surprise, and maybe reveal not factual truths, but emotional truths, and she saw no reason to injure people who might not want those things revealed.” As it turns out, the novel took Yanique long enough to write that the people her grandmother was concerned about died.

She took 11 years to write Land of Love and Drowning. During that time, she earned an MFA from the University of Houston, moved to Brooklyn, became a wife and mother, and, in 2010, published How to Escape From a Leper Colony: A Novella and Stories. Honors

include the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35, the 2010 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award and a Pushcart Prize.

“When you take 11 years to write a novel—I think maybe people should always take a long time—you can put so much in it,” she explains. “You can layer it, because you revise its focus. At one point, I’m focusing on myth, at another, I’m interested in motherhood. Sisterhood was a revision I was doing in Year 4.

You can’t just drop a chapter in, you have to go back and revise entirely, so now I’ve got new concerns, new interests, and I’ve read new novels. Hopefully this makes for a novel that’s rich—with lots of things to talk about in an interview,” she jokes.

Each of the siblings takes a turn telling his or her story, interspersed with chapters told by an omniscient narrator. As this quartet careens through history and the inevitable collisions of island life, they revise their understandings of each other and themselves. For example, the revelation that the captain’s blood courses through Jacob’s veins sends Anette spinning:

tation,” she says. “Part of my hope was to respond to that in some way. Much of my novel is set in the same time period as his novel, but the people he writes about are sort of outside my novel.”

Most people who know about the Virgin Islands probably went on a cruise there, or maybe their parents honeymooned there. “The way that we go to India, to eat the food and learn history and culture, that’s not the way that we go to the Virgin Islands,” Yanique says. “Lay on the beach and drink margaritas: That’s what we want to do, and that’s what we’re told we’re supposed to do. I hope to inspire all of us, the natives and the tourists, to think about different ways to experience each other.”

Megan Labrise is a freelance writer and columnist based in New York.

Land of Love and Drowning received a starred review in the May 15, 2014, issue of Kirkus Reviews.

I stand. Finally, I move. I breathing heavyheavy, like I fighting for the air. That’s how it feel inside. I open my hand and let the petals fall silently to the ground, the mess of their guts sticking to my palms. My life just get ruin. Everything I love just get make a sin. Something coming like a wave and is to drown me this time.

In the face of various devastations, a Bradshaw may sink or swim—though they typically prove buoyant. The siblings live through the transition from Dutch to American rule and the subsequent development of the tourist trade. A third generation will inherit the implications of these Earth-shakings, along with the Bradshaw genes.

One of Yanique’s aims is to let readers know the Virgin Islands—her islands—more intimately. She cites Don’t Stop the Carnival, the comic novel by Herman Wouk, as an inspiration for Land of Love and Drowning—for opening a dialogue between native and outsider art.

But Don’t Stop the Carnival is all about the tourist gaze, she points out. “It’s about a guy who opens up a hotel on the island, an outsider catering to outsiders. The locals or natives are not given full represen-

Land of Love and Drowning Yanique, Tiphanie Riverhead (368 pp.) $27.95 | Jul. 10, 2014 978-1-594488-33-7 |

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PERFIDIA

TOUGHS

Ellroy, James Knopf (720 pp.) $28.95 | $14.99 e-book | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-307-95699-6 978-0-385-35321-2 e-book

Falco, Ed Unbridled Books (432 pp.) $17.95 paper | Aug. 12, 2014 978-1-60953-111-9

Though it pivots on the Pearl Harbor attack, this worm’s-eye view from thoroughly corrupt Los Angeles is a war novel like no other.

It’s complicated, and the author (The Hilliker Curse, 2010, etc.) wouldn’t have it any other way. There’s no telling the good guys from the bad in Ellroy’s Los Angeles, because there are no good guys. The major distinction between cops and criminals is that the former have the power to frame the latter and kill the innocent with impunity, which they (or at least some) do without conscience or moral compunction, often in complicity with the government and even the Catholic Church. With his outrageously oversized ambition, Ellroy has announced that this sprawling but compelling novel is the beginning of a Second L.A. Quartet, which will cover the city during World War II and serve as a prequel to his L.A. Quartet, his most powerful and popular fiction, which spans the postwar decade. Thus, it includes plenty of characters who appear in other Ellroy novels, sowing the seeds of their conflicts and corruption. On the eve of Pearl Harbor, the four corpses of a Japanese family are discovered in what appears to be a gruesome ritual suicide. It seems they had advance knowledge of the attack (which, by the end of the novel, appears to have been the worst-kept secret in history). The investigation, or coverup, pits Sgt. Dudley Smith, full of charm but devoid of scruples (“I am in no way constrained by the law,” he boasts), against Capt. William Parker, who’s plagued by demons of alcoholism, faith and ambition (and who is one of the real-life characters fictionalized in a novel where Bette Davis plays a particularly sleazy role). Caught between the rivalry of the two are a young police chemist of Japanese descent and a former leftist call girl– turned-informant. The plot follows a tick-tock progression over the course of three weeks, in which “dark desires sizzle” and explode with a furious climax.

Ellroy is not only back in form—he’s raised the stakes.

(Author tour to Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C.)

Falco (The Family Corleone, 2012, etc.) dissects a New York City gangland war over Prohibition speak-easies and rumrunning.

In 1931, the Mafia didn’t rule Big Apple crime. The illegal booze trade was controlled by a loose confederation called the Combine, made up of a variety of Irish mobsters and the tightfisted, ever angry Dutch Schultz’s gang. Falco’s plot is anchored by historical gangland figures such as Schultz and Vince Coll— the “Mad Dog” of legend—but it’s Coll’s fictional friend Loretto Jones who provides perspective. Coll was a soldier in Schultz’s gang, which led to his brother’s death; in retribution, he wants to destroy the Combine, led by Owen Madden, another historical figure neatly fitted into the narrative. Coll’s first shot is the attempted assassination of a hot-tempered subcapo. His fusillade kills a child; politicos grab headlines offering big rewards; and the Combine wants blood. With Loretto nearby, witnessing the shooting, the police and the Combine think he was involved. The action moves from the mean streets of the Bronx to basement speak-easies and the fabled Cotton Club, showing Falco’s grip on environments from cold-water tenements to greasy spoons. Mad Dog is the most striking character here, a charismatic psychopath. Loretto’s loyal to him, but he’s also tied to the Baronti family, which gives him refuge after he witnesses the shooting; he’s also in love with Gina, their beautiful daughter. Loretto grows into a somewhat sympathetic protagonist, considering the mean streets of his youth, through outside influences and introspection. Coll is one-note, his only positive quality a twisted sense of loyal. Madden, Schultz, Luciano and the rest of the historical gang are straight out of newspaper columns yet subtly nuanced.

There’s gunplay for action fans, some R-rated gore and PG-sex.

Falco’s style tends toward reportorial, which gives the book a texture different from classic noir yet provides an intriguing read for crime-fiction fans.

THE NARROW ROAD TO THE DEEP NORTH

Flanagan, Richard Knopf (352 pp.) $26.95 | Aug. 14, 2014 978-0-385-35285-7

A literary war novel with a split personality, about a protagonist who loathes his dual character.

Ambition leads to excess in the sixth novel by Flanagan (Wanting, 2009, etc.), a prizewinning writer much renowned in his native Australia. The scenes of Australian POWs held by the Japanese have power and depth, as do the postwar transformations of soldiers on both sides.

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“A wolf expert travels to a peculiar Alaskan village to investigate a series of child murders.” from hold the dark

But the novel’s deep flaw is a pivotal plot development that aims at the literary heights of Anna Karenina and Madame Bovary but sounds too often like a swoon-worthy bodice ripper. “His pounding head, the pain in every movement and act and thought, seemed to have as its cause and remedy her, and only her and only her and only her,” rhapsodizes Dorrigo Evans, a surgeon who will be hailed as a national hero for his leadership in World War II, though he feels deeply unworthy. His obsession is Amy, a woman he met seemingly by chance, who has made the rest of his existence—including his fiancee—seem drab and lifeless. She returns his ardor and ups the ante: “God, she thought, how she wanted him, and how unseemly and unspeakable were the ways in which she wanted him.” Alas, it is not to be, for she is married to his uncle, and he has a war that will take him away, and each will think the other is dead. And those stretches are where the novel really comes alive, as they depict the brutality inflicted by the Japanese on the POWs who must build the Thai-Burma railway (which gives the novel its title) and ultimately illuminate their different values and their shared humanity.

When the leads are offstage, the novel approaches greatness in its inquiry into what it means to be a good person.

But there’s too much “her body was a poem beyond memorising” for the novel to fulfill its considerable ambition.

Despite a conclusion as unsatisfying as it is inevitable, a chilling portrait of a dead-eyed devil whose self-excusing mantra is “If I only had a woman!”

HOLD THE DARK

Giraldi, William Liveright/Norton (224 pp.) $24.95 | Sep. 8, 2014 978-0-87140-667-5 A wolf expert travels to a peculiar Alaskan village to investigate a series of child murders.

There’s a bit of bait and switch going on in this murky, brittle novel. The opening chapters lead you to believe this will be a wilderness-survival story centered on Russell Core, an elderly expert on wolves whose field research once led him to kill one of the great beasts. Carrying his grudging respect for

I CAN SEE IN THE DARK

Fossum, Karin Translated by Anderson, James Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (224 pp.) $25.00 | Aug. 12, 2014 978-0-544-11442-5 Fossum gives Inspector Konrad Sejer (Eva’s Eye, 2013, etc.) a sabbatical so she can plumb the depths of a sociopathic nurse without a corrective moral counterpart.

Riktor has always known he’s different from everyone else. He can see in the dark. He’s given to bursts of irrational rage. And he doesn’t really care about people, not at all.

Naturally, he’s taken a job as a geriatric nurse at the Løkka Nursing Home so he can make a difference in the lives of dying patients— for instance, by whispering invective to them, poking them in the eyes or switching their medications. When he’s left to watch a crippled child for a few moments, he effortlessly finds a way to torment her, and when he sees a cross-country skier plunge beneath the surface of an icy lake, he makes no move to help. It’s only a matter of time before Riktor graduates to murder, and once he does, the police are bound to find their way to his door. But the murder for which he’s arrested isn’t the one he committed. Indignant, he protests his innocence to Randers, the arresting officer, and Philip de Reuter, his court-appointed attorney. Wait till the trial, they both assure him. And as he waits, an improbable change steals over him. He’s unaccountably drawn to Margareth, the prison cook, and begins a new relationship with Ebba Neumann, the retired accountant whose endless crocheting always seemed the limit of her engagement with the world. By the time the trial finally arrives, he’s eager to tell his story. Fans of Fossum’s dark fiction will know better than to share his optimism. |

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the animals, Core travels to the hamlet of Keelut at the behest of Medora Slone, whose 6-year-old son, Bailey, is the third local child to have been taken in the night. After some impenetrable warnings from a local crone (“You would bar the door against the wolf, why not more against beasts with the souls of damned men, against men who would damn themselves to beasts”), Core investigates the local pack to find no evidence the boy was killed by wolves. Back at Medora’s house, he finds that she’s fled and quickly discovers Bailey’s body buried in the basement.

The bulk of the book concerns Bailey’s father, Vernon, a vet who returns home from an unidentified war and embarks on a killing spree with indistinct motives, with Medora seemingly marked as the final target. Core, meanwhile, is laid up with the flu for two weeks in a local hotel before conveniently being resurrected to serve as witness to the novel’s denouement. Ultimately, the First Blood–like vigilante violence is unearned and confusing, while Core’s participation seems the act of a literary writer trying to bring emotional substance where little exists.

Giraldi (Busy Monsters, 2012) is borrowing, less successfully, from the same well as Cormac McCarthy and Daniel Woodrell, but the novel’s affectation of style can’t support what is ultimately a gloomy and unsatisfying tale.

A novel like this one that aspires to greater meaning needs more than an assembly of hard men and noir idioms to make it work.

TOP SECRET

Griffin, W.E.B.; Butterworth IV, William E. Putnam (528 pp.) $28.95 | Aug. 5, 2014 978-0-399-17123-9 Opening his Clandestine Operations series, Griffin (Empire and Honor, 2012, etc.) drafts warriors from his Honor Bound series to confront post–World War II communist aggression.

It’s late 1945. Army Lt. James Cronley, scion of a Texas ranching family, has played a significant role in frustrating die-hard Nazi attempts to cache bomb-grade uranium in Argentina. By direct order of President Harry S. Truman, Cronley’s promoted to captain for his exploits. He returns to Germany and his Army assignment at a Counterintelligence Corps project wringing intel out of “good German” remnants of Abwehr Ost, an intelligence unit that developed critical information about the Soviet Union. Cronley’s soon trapped in a bureaucratic knife fight among veterans of the Office of Strategic Services (covert operations warriors), CIC loyalists, other Army units and the FBI. Set mostly at an isolated and abandoned Bavarian monastery and elsewhere in Germany, the narrative’s ripe with meetings, confrontations, lies and subterfuge rather than gunplay. The dialogue is standard Griffin sarcasm and one-upmanship, driving a plot which requires getting a captured Russian agent from the Abwehr Ost camp to Argentina. Back in the U.S., Cronley elopes with a young American woman he met during his Argentine expedition, but his bride 18

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is killed in a car wreck a day later. Less than a week later, he sleeps with a colonel’s wife, and it becomes clear that Griffin’s male-female interactions will be sex rather than romance. The Griffin style remains immutable: short chapters, macho attitudes, stiff upper lip when threatened, no-sweat heroics, much love for military equipment and weaponry and protocol. That familiarity makes the occasional minor error more notable, and it makes one good-guy escape from the hangman problematic.

In keeping with Clandestine Operations’ raison d’être, Griffin’s sketch of the immediate post–WWII bureaucratic territorial clashes has purpose; it’s an outline of how the demobilized OSS hot-war heroes became passionate CIA cold warriors.

G-fans will not be disappointed.

THE VINTNER’S DAUGHTER

Harnisch, Kristen She Writes Press (342 pp.) $16.95 paper | Aug. 5, 2014 978-1-63512-929-0

A young French woman, determined to pursue her dreams, shows resourcefulness and endurance as she journeys from her home to America in a novel set in the late 1800s.

Seventeen-year-old Sara Thibault is the youngest daughter of a Loire Valley vintner, and she hopes to follow in his footsteps. She’s well-versed in the intricacies of winemaking and understands the importance of a strong grape crop, but Sara doesn’t anticipate the series of events that threatens to derail her dreams. Her sister, Lydia, is engaged to Bastien Lemieux, the eldest son of the area’s wine broker. He’s handsome, but Sara suspects he also possesses a cruel streak, a sharp contrast to his kind younger brother, Philippe, who left for America following a scandalous episode. When Sara’s father is killed in a mudslide and leaves behind a sizable debt, her mother sells the vineyard to the Lemieux family, and Lydia marries Bastien. Distraught but not defeated, Sara vows one day to reclaim her family’s legacy and blames the Lemieux family for her father’s death.

(The accident happened as he was traveling to find a better price for his wine than that offered by Lemieux senior.) Bastien proves Sara’s suspicions correct: He brutalizes Lydia, and when he attacks Sara, her response is so forceful that she must flee France to avoid dire consequences. A pregnant Lydia accompanies her, and they set sail for America. Although Sara’s path becomes more difficult, she doesn’t lose sight of her goal. Using her dwindling funds, she travels to California hoping to make her mark in its flourishing winemaking industry and ends up in a situation that could take her full circle. Harnisch’s palatable debut is enriched with historical detail about the wine industry. Sara is a dynamic heroine, but secondary characters would benefit from further development. Even so, the plot is engaging and well-paced.

Wine aficionados and fans of romance and historical fiction will drink this in.

“Hurwitz adds to his string of imaginative thrillers with an action-adventure story ready for blockbuster Hollywood....” from don’t look back

DON’T LOOK BACK

Hurwitz, Gregg St. Martin’s (400 pp.) $26.99 | $12.99 e-book | Aug. 19, 2014 978-0-312-62683-9 978-1-4668-4873-3 e-book Hurwitz (Tell No Lies, 2013, etc.) again proves himself a plot master as he follows Eve Hardaway on a much-needed vacation into Mexico’s Oaxacan jungles.

It was supposed to be an anniversary trip. Then Eve’s husband found a younger, more “elegant” woman.

Eve decided the prepaid getaway to Días Felices Ecolodge was just the ticket anyway, especially after having given up nursing for a mind-numbing corporate cubicle to support her son. At the lodge, Eve stumbles upon a lost digital camera while on a jungle trek and later learns that it belongs to Theresa Hamilton, now missing. On the same trek, Eve spies a mysterious man near a ramshackle hut secreted in the dense foliage. After deftly creating empathy for Eve, Hurwitz drops her into live-or-die circumstances, buoyed only by her shaky but ever growing self-confidence and love for her son.

The mystery jungle dweller is slowly revealed to be Bashir Ahmat al-Gilani, the Bear of Bajaur, a bloodthirsty terrorist hiding in Mexico and a character written with inventive back story. If Días Felices is a jungle Ship of Fools, characters run to type: macho “Gay Jay,” healing after a bad romance; Will, his straight best friend, the McGyver that Eve needs; Claire, a lonely, bitter and vocal young woman handicapped by leg braces; Harry and Sue, an older couple more interested in personal safety than group survival; and junglewise Fortunato, indígenio lodge cook. In a plot as fast as river rapids, Eve fights more battles than Rambo and copes with intermittent Internet connections, a satellite phone that only occasionally gets a signal, gangrene, dysentery, disembowelment by IED and a “black wave” of “eat-everything-in-their-path” sweeper ants. Hurwitz relates Oaxaca imaginatively, with a villain who reminds a soccer mom that “jungle laws had always run beneath it all, a molten stream under the bedrock.”

Hurwitz adds to his string of imaginative thrillers with an action-adventure story ready for blockbuster Hollywood—get Cameron Diaz’s people!

A prologue set in 2013, narrated by a resident of the Westchester Senior Center, provides an intriguing setup. A woman and a policeman visit the resident and ask if she came from a small Polish village. Their purpose is unclear until they mention bones recently found there: “And we think you might know something about them.” The book proceeds in the third person, told from the points of view mostly of teenage Helena, who comes upon an injured young Jewish-American soldier, and sometimes of her twin, Ruth, who is not as adventurous as Helena but is very competitive with her. Their father is dead, their mother is dying in a hospital, and they are raising their three younger siblings amid danger and hardship. The romance between Helena and Sam, the soldier, is often conveyed in overheated language that doesn’t sit well with the era’s tragic events: “There had been an intensity to his embrace that said he was barely able to contain himself, that he also wanted more.” Jenoff, clearly on the side of tolerance, slips in a simplified historical framework for the uninformed. But she also feeds stereotypes, having Helena note that Sam has “a slight arch to his nose” and a dark complexion that “would make him suspect as a Jew immediately.” Clichés

THE WINTER GUEST

Jenoff, Pam Harlequin MIRA (352 pp.) $14.95 paper | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-7783-1596-4 An 18-year-old Polish girl falls in love, swoons over a first kiss, dreams of marriage—and, oh yes, we are in the middle of the Holocaust.

Jenoff (The Ambassador’s Daughter, 2013, etc.) weaves a tale of fevered teenage love in a time of horrors in the early 1940s, as the Nazis invade Poland and herd Jews into ghettos and concentration camps. |

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also pop up during the increasingly complex plot: “But even if they stood in place, the world around them would not.”

Romance and melodrama mix uneasily with mass murder.

SOMEWHERE SAFE WITH SOMEBODY GOOD

Karon, Jan Putnam (400 pp.) $27.95 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-0-399-16744-7

Father Tim Kavanagh ponders the past and looks to the future in Mitford, his beloved North Carolina mountain town.

A few years into his retirement, following a trip to his hometown—where he discovered an unknown half brother—and a journey to Ireland, Father Tim and his wife, Cynthia, are back in Mitford, and he has to decide what to do with his future. Cynthia, a beloved author of children’s books, is always busy, but Father Tim is a bit at sea.

A humble man who believes in the power of prayer, he knows God will provide. He turns down the bishop’s request that he return to his old parish after the incumbent admits to adultery and attempts suicide, but he does take on the job of running the village bookstore while the owner is on bed rest for a dangerous pregnancy. Dooley Barlowe, the young man he raised as his own, is well on his way to becoming a veterinarian after a dysfunctional childhood that left some of his scattered siblings still in need of help. Father Tim especially worries for Dooley’s brother Sammy, who seems lost and bitter. Father Tim lunches with old friends, continues to raise money for a children’s hospital, encourages Sammy’s interest in landscaping and fights to control the diabetes that caused his retirement. As he helps out the many friends and neighbors he has known for so many years, his path becomes clearer; as Christmas approaches, his heart is filled with joy despite the problems and doubts that beset them all.

After a long hiatus, Karon (Light From Heaven, 2005, etc.) has returned with a novel that offers something for those who believe and those who do not. All the beloved quirky characters are here, the past is neatly summarized and the future, full of hope.

ASSASSIN’S GAME

Larsen, Ward Forge (384 pp.) $25.99 | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-7653-3672-9

To save his missing wife, a lethal Israeli assassin is pulled back into action One-time Air Force pilot and law enforcement officer Larsen (Fly by Wire, 2012, etc.) brings back the central characters from his first thriller, The Perfect Assassin: Dr. Christine Palmer and her husband, former Mossad agent David 20

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Slaton. When Christine disappears from a medical conference in Stockholm, David abandons their life of quiet anonymity in suburban Virginia and sets out to find her. He quickly understands that his wife’s security depends on him returning to his former life as Israel’s best assassin. David discovers the old reflexes of the assassin’s game and uses his very special tradecraft to navigate his way through a trail of violence, but he realizes that this path must end with him taking down a high-priority target. After a number of Israeli operations have failed to kill the brilliant Iranian scientist who could develop a nuclear missile for his country, David’s former employers in Israeli military intelligence plan to use him as their final alternative. However, an obsessive detective, a manipulative Mossad director and the financial legacy of an international arms dealer are among the many factors that complicate this mission, while adding twists and turns to a well-developed account of international espionage.

A must-read for anyone looking for the next great assassin saga.

ROAD ENDS

Lawson, Mary Dial Press (304 pp.) $26.00 | Jul. 8, 2014 978-0-8129-9573-2 Lawson’s compelling third novel (The Other Side of the Bridge, 2006, etc.) is about trying to get away—from the past, from tragedy, from grief, and from the inescapable obligations, for better or worse, of family.

The Cartwrights live in Struan, a rural Canadian town with harsh weather. In 1967, 21-year-old Megan is finally leaving home.

The second eldest child and only daughter, she’s spent most of her life running the household and raising her five younger brothers while her mother focused on having babies. She moves to London, intent on living her own life, and in her absence, the Cartwrights begin to unravel. The father, Edward, avoids his family as much as possible, worried that his growing temper and violent thoughts mirror his own father’s abusive behavior. Tom, the oldest son, is rocked by a tragedy that leads to his best friend’s suicide and moves back home. He isolates himself from the outside world as much as possible and fixates on death. As Megan slowly finds her footing in London, the Cartwright home descends into filth and inattention. Finally, Tom discovers that his 4-year-old brother, Adam, has been grossly neglected and changes must be made. The conflicts the Cartwrights face seem unavoidable, as if they cannot—or, more appropriately, will not—help themselves.

Even halfway around the world, Megan can’t completely escape her family’s many needs; but returning would mean giving up a life of her own, and, as a friend tells her, “The graveyards are full of indispensable people, Meg.” Although the novel moves slowly, the characters are riveting and demand sympathy even at their most pathetic.

We are left with the sense that to live is to struggle, in cities or in the harsh, Canadian north, and there is nothing to do but the best we can. (Agent: Kim Witherspoon)

“A debut collection of stories by an American author about post-Mao China provides fresh perspective through its understated, straightforward prose.” from the dog

THE DOG Stories

Livings, Jack Farrar, Straus and Giroux (240 pp.) $25.00 | Aug. 5, 2014 978-0-374-17853-6 A debut collection of stories by an American author about post-Mao China provides fresh perspective through its understated, straightforward prose.

These stories are sneaky, almost subliminal, in their ambitions and connections. Almost all the protagonists and other characters are Chinese or at least indigenous to the region, with the lone exception of Claire, an American student in “The Pocketbook,” who “savored the taste of the unsettled air between the two arenas of existence.” For the reader and perhaps the author, these stories also seem to exist between two arenas, not typically American nor authentically Chinese, but in a realm of possibility that invites similar savoring. Claire discovers that the streets outside her cloistered college aren’t as safe as she might have thought, as a 10-year-old expert robs her (and then himself falls victim to social Darwinism as he loses his spoils to older and tougher thugs), while Claire becomes caught in a protest that she barely understands. Because the author writes so simply, and so well, the human complexities of these stories and the connections among them reveal themselves subtly rather than with great drama.

None of the stories are explicitly political, though “The Crystal Sarcophagus,” the longest tale, illuminates what it means to live within a value system likely very different from the reader’s. With the death of Chairman Mao, the commission for his crystal coffin represents a great honor but also an impossible challenge, as it is decreed that a project that should take more than three years must be completed in 10 months. “When completion of a task requires conditions that do not exist, create proper conditions!” orders the official from “[t]he Party [that] outranked physical laws, scientific fact, logic.” Within all of these stories, the human element provides the common denominator.

Though Livings works as a journalist, his fiction shows a whole lot more than moonlighting potential. (Agent: Anna Stein)

THE UNDERTAKING

Magee, Audrey Grove (304 pp.) $25.00 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-0-8021-2245-2

People on the wrong side of history are given humane consideration in an Irish debut, shortlisted for the Bailey’s Prize, which follows a young German couple married during World War II. Journalist Magee uses clipped, factual prose to deliver her gathering storm of a story narrated from the perspectives of German soldier Peter Faber and bank clerk Katharina Spinell, who, in 1941, agree to a state-arranged

marriage (a “Nazi breeding stunt,” according to Peter’s father) in exchange for honeymoon leave and perhaps a widow’s pension. Peter and Katharina take their vows separately, miles apart, meeting for the first time when Peter arrives for the honeymoon at Katharina’s family home in Berlin. To their surprise and relief, the pair fall in love. Peter is the son of a liberal family, but Mr. Spinell is a party follower, in thrall to a sinister Dr. Weinart who infects Peter with his belief in the fatherland.

While Peter must soon return to the eastern front, where the savagery and suffering continue, the Spinells move into a fine new apartment, recently the home of expelled Jews, and Katharina finds herself pregnant. Then her brother, driven mad by his experience of war, is killed, and Peter, fighting in Stalingrad in 1943, discovers his own limits, as the army is surrounded by Russians, and the abandoned soldiers are killed, commit suicide or surrender. Holding on to the talisman of returning to his wife and son, Peter manages to survive, as does Katharina, although with the war lost, the full, final degradation and humiliation of both the fighting men and their families are inescapable. When the couple finally reunite, the distances each has traveled are starkly revealed.

Magee’s bare, brutal story is not new, but it is told with a sharply focused simplicity that both exposes and condemns through its understatement.

THE MAD AND THE BAD

Manchette, Jean-Patrick Translated by Nicholson-Smith, Donald New York Review Books (192 pp.) $14.95 paper | Jul. 15, 2014 978-1-59017-720-4 A young beauty sprung from an insane asylum, a hired killer with a bad case of workplace anxiety, a calculating philanthropist and his orphaned nephew create nonstop havoc in this 1972 French novel, translated into English for the first time.

The opening scene might lead you to expect the grisliest kind of pulp fiction: The killer, Thompson, overcoming severe stomach cramps, shoves a hacksaw blade into the heart of a suspected pederast. And there certainly is no shortage of extreme violence. Right up until the end, people are getting shot, stabbed and bonked in the head with heavy objects, a department store is left in flames, and the French countryside is at risk from speeding vehicles. But this is at heart a merciless comedy in which every violent act and utterance carries the potential of hilarity. Julie, the beauty hired to care for the increasingly unstable young orphan, is a piece of work the likes of which we’ve never seen—lethal and maternal. Manchette, who died in 1995, was a master of control. The fierce deadpan tone of the novel never wavers even as its gang of criminals demonstrates its inability to shoot straight. As in a Jacques Tati film, sheer lunacy propels the story, one outrageous mishap triggering another.

Set in the ’70s, the book is on one level a sendup of classic noir, but it’s no spoof, existing in its own perverse universe. |

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“This is exhilarating fiction from a voice to watch.” from a girl is a half -formed thing

A minor masterpiece from a French novelist whose other recently reissued works include Fatale and The Prone Gunman.

A GIRL IS A HALFFORMED THING

McBride, Eimear Coffee House (240 pp.) $24.00 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-56689-368-8

A fresh, emotionally raw debut from Irish-born, U.K.-based author McBride.

Written in halting sentences, halfsentences and dangling clauses that tumble through the text like fleeting, undigested thoughts, the story follows the female narrator as she navigates an abusive upbringing—physical, sexual and psychological—and the lingering effects of her brother’s early childhood brain trauma. McBride opens with the young narrator in the hospital with her mother and brother, who is undergoing surgery (“You white-faced feel the needle go in. Feel fat juicy poison poison young boy skin. In your arteries. Eyeballs. Spine hands legs. Puke it cells up all day long. No Mammy don’t let them”). From there, the author follows her protagonist through her confused, angry adolescence, which is exacerbated by her mother’s piercing Irish-Catholic piety, and examines her struggle between appeasing her family and developing her own identity. Though the structure and events are roughly chronological and conventional—childhood; adolescence and experimentation with sex, drugs and alcohol; further confusing and liberating experiences in college; the deaths of loved ones—the style is anything but. McBride calls to mind both Joyce and Stein in her syntax and mechanics, but she brings her own emotional range to the table, as well. As readers, we burrow deep within the narrator’s brain as she battles to mature into a well-balanced adult amid her chaotic surroundings. In an uncomfortable but always eye-opening tale, McBride investigates the tensions among family, love, sex and religion. Lovers of straightforward storytelling will shirk, but open-minded readers (specifically those not put off by the unusual language structure) will be surprised, moved and awed by this original novel.

McBride’s debut garnered the inaugural Goldsmiths Prize in 2013 and the Baileys Women’s Prize for fiction in 2014—and deservedly so. This is exhilarating fiction from a voice to watch.

SUNSHINE ON SCOTLAND STREET

McCall Smith, Alexander Anchor (352 pp.) $15.00 paper | Aug. 12, 2014 978-0-345-80440-2 An eighth season of charmingly featherweight escapades, moral dilemmas, and errors committed and corrected and sometimes simply brushed aside by the denizens of 44 Scotland St. and its Edinburgh environs.

Miraculously, anthropologist Domenica Macdonald succeeds in marrying painter Angus Lordie even though Angus has made no arrangements for a wedding ring or a honeymoon or the gaping hole in the kilt he plans to wear. No sooner has the happy couple taken their vows than the best man, gallery owner Matthew Harmony, is approached by Bo, a filmmaker who’s a friend of his triplets’ au pair, Anna, who wants to film a fly-on-the-wall documentary of Matthew’s absolutely normal family, which he’s convinced Danish audiences will love. Bertie Pollock, the 6-year-old to whom Angus entrusts his beloved dog, Cyril, while he’s away, has to deal with the fact that his mother, Irene, doesn’t want a dog in the house.

Convinced that something ails Cyril, she starts him in psychotherapy, and Bertie contemplates protective measures that are bound to backfire. Bertie’s father, Stuart, inches closer to confronting his misgivings about the uncanny resemblance of his baby son Ulysses’ ears to those of his wife’s former therapist, Dr. Hugo Fairbairn, now prudently decamped to Aberdeen.

And in the most inventive of the plots that swirl and churn and then dissolve, narcissistic surveyor Bruce Anderson meets his exact physical double, a man who would certainly be his long-lost twin brother if he had one, and Jonathan proposes a mad scheme Bruce unaccountably accepts.

A tighter focus on fewer characters than the earlier installments (Bertie Plays the Blues, 2013, etc.) doesn’t pay off in additional depth or sharper conflict but generates more serial complications per capita for a crew that’s endlessly open to adventures while remaining immitigably themselves.

SECRETS OF THE LIGHTHOUSE A Novel Montefiore, Santa Simon & Schuster (400 pp.) $25.99 | Aug. 5, 2014 978-1-4767-3537-5

Montefiore’s eighth novel (The Woman From Paris, 2013, etc.) is a love story with so many layers that perhaps it’s best to call it a story about love. Toss in broken family ties, a tragic death and a ghost who must also learn to love, and the secrets gradually unfold.

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When 33-year-old Ellen Trawton can no longer bear her aristocratic mother’s pressure to marry for all the wrong reasons, she secretly flees England to seek her Irish aunt, whose existence she knows of only from letters she’s found. Aunt Peg welcomes her with open arms, as do her (surprise!) four uncles.

Ellen is immediately drawn to beautiful Connemara and her newfound family, and she is so unable to deal with pressure from home that she impulsively flings her iPhone into the ocean, severing communication with those she left behind. Drawn to the ruins of a local lighthouse with a disastrous history, she begins exploring the area and slowly unravels her mother’s connection to Ireland and the true story of her own roots, and she finds love…if only the ghost will allow it. Chapters written from the ghost’s point of view reveal Montefiore’s leanings: There are spiritual vibrations, channeling, life after death in different forms. Readers will suspect the truth long before the characters do (Ellen seems too naïve for 33), but the ghost brings an interesting perspective. Montefiore intertwines lush description of Connemara with her character-driven plot, and all ends well on Earth and beyond.

The ghost provides the message of the story: We are not alone, death is not the end, and love is all that matters. As she says, “Why does it take so much unhappiness to make us realize that there is nothing of any value in our lives but love?” (Agent: Sheila Crowley )

SILVER BAY

Moyes, Jojo Penguin (384 pp.) $16.00 paper | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-14-312648-5 More earnest and less quirky than Moyes’ later successes, Me Before You (2012) and One Plus One (2014), this romantic novel originally published in Britain in 2007 centers on the moral and emotional crises faced by a buttoned-down Englishman who disrupts the tranquility of an isolated coastal community in New South Wales when he scopes it out for a high-end resort.

For the last six years, Liza and her 10-year-old daughter, Hannah, have lived in Silver Bay with Liza’s feisty 76-year-old aunt Kathleen, who owns a hotel that’s seen better days. Liza, who skippers one of several whale-watching boats in the bay, seems overprotective of Hannah; it gradually becomes clear that Liza escaped England under a cloud six years ago and is hiding from the outside world. Enter Mike, a methodical junior partner in London’s Beaker Holdings. While his fiancee, Vanessa—who happens to be the boss’s daughter—finalizes wedding plans, Mike heads to Silver Bay, where Beaker Holdings hopes to build a large luxury resort. Staying at Kathleen’s hotel and becoming increasingly friendly with the locals, Mike doesn’t let on why he’s really there. He and Liza share an obvious attraction, which only increases when he saves Hannah’s life after the boat she’s snuck into the bay gets entangled in illegal netting. Then Vanessa shows up. Once Mike’s connection to the

developers becomes known, his popularity plummets. Learning from Kathleen that his plans might put Hannah at risk, Mike wakes up and tries to right the situation, first with Vanessa’s help and then on his own, whatever the sacrifice to career or love. Meanwhile, standard-issue Victim-with-a-capitol-V heroine Liza faces the demons of her past in attempting to stop the development. Of course, virtue, innocence and love win out over greed and shallow sophistication.

The wit and nuanced shadings of Moyes’ best are unfortunately missing in this predictable tear-jerker, a pale echo of the 1983 film Local Hero.

THE SHELTERING

Powell, Mark Story River Books (296 pp.) $29.95 | Aug. 26, 2014 978-1-61117-434-2 A ponderous novel about the way war continues to rage inside those who have experienced its horrors firsthand.

There are two narratives in the fourth novel by Powell (The Dark Corner, 2012, etc.), whose fiction was previously associated with the Appalachian south but who here extends his reach from coast to coast as well as to such hotspots as Iraq and Afghanistan. The first strand concerns Luther Redding, a drone pilot from Florida who stalks targets in Afghanistan. He seems to be the protagonist until he disappears from the novel, though his absence remains a strong presence in the lives of his wife and two teenage daughters. In case the reader has missed the thematic point, the novel explains from the perspective of the older daughter, “Lucy talked about her family. For the last three years she had witnessed their collapse scarily mirror that of the nation.” They had enriched themselves on paper through real estate speculation, but their fortune fell apart like a house of cards. Luther’s assignment seems like a similar illusion— video game as war. His wife laments “the ossification of their marriage….That dry heap she felt blow by her, crumb by crumb, every night.” The other plotline concerns two brothers, both veterans suffering the ravages of war, who enlist an accomplice and embark on a cross-country drug run after the younger is released from prison. “The war’s seeped into the groundwater….

It’s in our DNA,” says the jailbird to his older brother, who committed a war atrocity, allowed his family to crumble and recognizes that his brother’s scam is a really bad idea. There are some parallels between the two sisters and the two brothers, but it’s hard to see how these plots might intersect. But they must. And through some authorial sleight of hand, they do.

A very serious novel that doesn’t pull any punches but telegraphs too many of them.

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ETTA MAE’S WORST BADLUCK DAY

Ross, Ann B. Viking (320 pp.) $26.95 | Aug. 19, 2014 978-0-670-02437-7

In the 16th installment of the Abbotsville novels, Miss Julia steps to the margins so sexy Etta Mae Wiggins, collector of Barbies and lover of men, can enter the spotlight.

Etta Mae, just 30 and twice divorced, wants a little respect from the blue-nosed ladies of the garden club; she aspires to greater things than life in a trailer park and hard hours as a home health care assistant. Rich old Mr. Howard Connard is recovering from a stroke with her patient help and has asked her to marry him; they’re secretly planning the society wedding of her dreams. Then Mr. Connard Junior comes to town, barring Etta Mae from contact with his father, whom he’s shipping off to an old folks home. Etta Mae needs to marry Mr. Howard within a day. If only her ex-husband Skip didn’t show up at her double-wide, hiding out from thugs trying to steal his winning lottery ticket. And then a few hours later, she discovers Junior unconscious on her couch, his head banged in (requiring lots of conversations with the sheriff, which she just doesn’t have time for). Though there are amusing coming and goings in Abbotsville, too often Ross uses obvious shortcuts to build her characters—Etta Mae’s Kathie Lee Gifford dress from Wal-Mart, her collector NASCAR Barbie—which results in a caricature instead of a sympathetic portrait of her heroine. A slapstick lingerie shower, featuring vengeful hillbillies and a drunk Miss Julia, is followed by a (more age-appropriate) happy ending for our Etta Mae. Much of the same Southern-fried slapstick from Ross; only for fans of the series.

THE HUNDRED DAYS

Roth, Joseph Translated by Panchyk, Richard New Directions (224 pp.) $22.95 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-8112-2278-5 Sympathy for characters vies with purplish prose and blaring symbols in this reimagining of Napoleon’s brief resurgence after his first exile.

Roth (Joseph Roth: A Life in Letters, 2012, etc.) focuses on the period (actually 111 days) between Napoleon’s triumphant return to Paris from banishment on Elba and his defeat at Waterloo, imagining a great man moving toward his downfall.

In this slim historical novel, the author dwells on the Corsican’s solitude, ambitions and shifting emotions in two sections, while two others concern a palace laundress named Angelina, also Corsican, who is infatuated with the emperor and whose aunt 24

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tells fortunes for the great man. Napoleon has an encounter with the washerwoman that leads to an almost-tryst, as well as two brushes with her son, a drummer boy in the army. The second of these, on his final battlefield, is, like many of the book’s stronger scenes, damp with bathos. Angelina briefly interrupts her adoration of the man, “so great that everything in the world was his,” to dally with the “world of sabres, spurs, boots and woven braid” in the person of “the magnificent Sergeant-Major Sosthene,” a comic giant and the drummer boy’s dad. She will also find refuge during the Elba days in the bed of a kind Polish cobbler with a wooden leg. Aside from reviewing his troops, studying his maps and visiting his mom, Napoleon does little until his coach ride to Belgium and flight to the Atlantic and his last jailers, the British. Roth dwells at length on his solitude and his consciousness of time running short. Ticking clocks and trickling sand in “an hourglass of polished beryl” are less than subtle reminders of “his enemy, Time.”

Where the classic Radetsky March could woo any reader with its breadth, insight and humor, this novel offers a sentimental miniaturist painting soppy little scenes that maybe only a Roth completist will appreciate.

THE THING ABOUT DECEMBER

Ryan, Donal Steerforth (208 pp.) $15.00 paper | Aug. 26, 2014 978-1-58642-228-8

Hapless Johnsey Cunliffe lurches through life in contemporary Ireland, experiencing the deaths of his parents and facing an uncertain future.

Ryan structures the novel in 12 chapters, each set in a different month and collectively taking us through a calendar year in Johnsey’s life. Most months start with a short reminiscence about his late father, who had lots of homely wisdom and observations about the changing seasons. Johnsey has a dead-end job at a local co-op, loading supplies and working at the sufferance of Packie Collins, who hired him as a favor but rails against his general uselessness. To make life even worse, on the way home from work each day, Johnsey is tormented by Eugene Penrose and his thug friends. Life begins to change for Johnsey in February when his mother dies, and in April (after all, the cruelest month), Eugene viciously attacks Johnsey, so much so that he lands in the hospital for a period of several weeks, blind and with broken bones. There, he meets a nurse he at first knows only as “Lovely Voice” and a fellow patient called Mumbly Dave, whose jaw has been temporarily wired shut. These two new acquaintances have a profound effect on Johnsey’s life, even after he recovers his sight and gets out of the hospital. He finds out the nurse’s name is Siobhán, and she begins to visit him (as does Mumbly Dave) at his home. The local council’s change in zoning laws makes the poor farm Johnsey inherited extremely valuable, and Mumbly Dave and Siobhán begin to feud over the most appropriate disposition of Johnsey’s property.

“Scott Coffman has five days until the little boy he’s been caring for returns to his birth mother; Mara Nichols is five days away from killing herself before Huntington’s disease can steal her independence.” from five days left

FIVE DAYS LEFT

Cunningly written, the novel gives us a glimpse into the underside of modern Irish life.

THE WITCH And Other Tales Re-Told Thompson, Jean Blue Rider Press (272 pp.) $25.95 | Sep. 25, 2014 978-0-399-17058-4

Fairy tales and folklore get clever modern realist rewrites from National Book Award finalist Thompson (The Humanity Project, 2013; The Year We Left Home, 2011, etc.).

Domineering parents, wicked siblings, wolves in sheep’s clothing—Thompson recognizes that one reason centuries-old children’s stories endure is because they’re readily applicable to any era. These eight tales apply the tropes of stories like “Sleeping Beauty” to hardscrabble Midwestern settings, and Thompson doesn’t feel beholden to the familiar plots; she uses them “only as a kind of scaffolding for new stories,” as she writes in the introduction. So the “prince” of “Inamorata” is a little slow thanks to a childhood head injury, while his “Cinderella” left her clear Lucite heels behind after a boozy party. The tendency of fairy tales to feature trapped and imperiled young women is of particular interest to Thompson. The teenage girl in “Candy,” juggling an interest in boys while caring for her ailing grandmother, is just coming to recognize how her sexuality both empowers her and makes her vulnerable, and the ending brilliantly complicates the notion of who’s Little Red Riding Hood and who’s the predatory wolf. “The Curse” and “Your Secret’s Safe With Me” are effective “Rapunzel”-esque tales in which (respectively) an overprotective father and arrogant intellectual foolishly labor to shield women from the outside world. And in the closing “Prince,” the strongest story of the batch, a mentally troubled woman bullied by her sister is redeemed in part by the stray dog of the title. Not every story works: “Faith” is a thin riff on “The Pied Piper,” while “Three,” in which three brothers can’t save their divorced father from the blowsy, shallow wouldbe stepmom he’s dating, sputters to a close.

Still, the best stories are entertainingly inventive, doing more than just transposing contemporary characters onto familiar tales. (Agent: Henry Dunow)

Timmer, Julie Lawson Amy Einhorn/Putnam (352 pp.) $26.95 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-399-16734-8 Timmer’s emotional debut about saying goodbye should come with a box of tissues.

Scott Coffman has five days until the little boy he’s been caring for returns to his birth mother; Mara Nichols is five days away from killing herself before Huntington’s disease can steal her independence. The two meet anonymously in an online therapy forum, and although their paths never cross in real life, Timmer deftly compares their shared dilemmas of when and how to let go. Mara’s husband dotes on her, while her parents, colleagues and the friends her daughter adorably calls “those ladies” are unwavering in their support. It’s only through the harsher lens of the outside world that we see the devastating effects of Mara’s disease, from the awkward gait that makes her look drunk to the kids at her daughter’s school to the woman who tries too hard to help after seeing Mara soil herself in the grocery aisle. As the countdown continues, seemingly normal moments carry more weight than Mara can bear; at one point, she compares the sound of a dial tone to the “one-note dirge” of a flat-lining EKG machine. Scott can relate. He’s trying to cram in as many bedtime stories and home-cooked meals as he can before sending Curtis back to his junkie mother, who often let the boy go hungry. But Scott’s pregnant wife, Laurie, fears Curtis’ behavioral problems might be more than their family can handle long-term. Scott’s dread at sending Curtis home is almost as hard to digest as the uncomfortable truth that Laurie may have a point. Is it selfish for Scott to put the boy’s needs before his wife’s? Is it more selfish for Mara to abandon her family now than to ask them to care for her in the final stages of her disease? As Scott and Mara wrestle with ethical questions, the answers they find are both relatable and debatable.

The characters are so affecting it’s tough to make it to Day 5. An authentic and powerful story.

THE STORY HOUR

Umrigar, Thrity Harper/HarperCollins (336 pp.) $25.99 | Aug. 19, 2014 978-0-06-225930-1 Umrigar’s (The World We Found, 2012, etc.) novel begins as a small domestic drama and develops into a forceful examination of identity, cultural isolation and the power of storytelling.

When Dr. Maggie Bose first meets Lakshmi after the young woman’s suicide attempt, she can already guess at Lakshmi’s story—abusive husband, familial separation, cultural isolation—a life in America that is so like |

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those of the many other immigrant women she’s treated. They begin weekly therapy sessions, though Lakshmi seems unaware of the purpose—are they not new friends, simply sharing their stories? Lakshmi’s tales of her Indian village, of the time she saved the landowner’s son, her care for the village elephant, her pride at a hard-won education, are shadowed by her current life in a cold Midwestern college town. Her husband treats her with contempt, demands she work long hours at his restaurant and, perhaps worse, forbids contact with her family in India. Maggie suspects Lakshmi is less in need of psychotherapy than autonomy. Maggie and her husband, Sudhir (an Indian math professor, a fact that delights Lakshmi), begin promoting her as a caterer to their friends. Maggie teaches her to drive. Lakshmi’s independence even improves her marriage. And then Lakshmi tells Maggie a story that rewrites her whole narrative; she did a shocking thing, and Maggie is repelled, though she has her own secrets. Despite 30 years of happy marriage to Sudhir, she is having a reckless affair. When Lakshmi finds out, this destroys the story of Maggie and Sudhir’s enviable marriage, and so Lakshmi takes revenge. The novel begins with a suicide attempt and ends with the regenerating possibilities of storytelling as a means of healing, of shaping identity, of endlessly re-creating the world.

An impressive writer, Umrigar delivers another smart, compulsively readable work.

ALL WE HAD

Weatherwax, Annie Scribner (224 pp.) $24.00 | Aug. 5, 2014 978-1-4767-5520-5 A mother and daughter take a coastto-coast journey and get caught in the economic downturn.

Thirteen-year-old Ruthie’s entire life has been a parade of shoddy homes and questionable men as her mother moves from relationship to relationship. The pattern’s pretty much the same: When Rita tires of one man, she and Ruthie clear the house of any items they can sell and move on to the next. Rita is unapologetic about her lifestyle, but she’s protective of 13-yearold Ruthie, a remarkably bright and precocious girl who rarely misses a day of school despite their vagabond existence. When Ruthie suggests it’s once again time to move on, they pile their belongings into their usual luggage—plastic garbage bags—and climb into Rita’s dilapidated Ford Escort for a cross-country trip from California to Boston. But their car breaks down short of their destination, and with only a few dollars remaining, Rita finds work at a diner in Fat River, New York, a one-horse town with a stagnant economy. The longer they stay, the more Ruthie and Rita feel part of the community. Mel, the diner owner, is the first man to look at Rita with respect. Transgender waitress Peter Pam becomes Ruthie’s closest friend and confidante, and the elderly hardware-store owners make sure her recycled bicycle remains in top-notch shape. Then Rita buys a home she can’t really afford, and Ruthie’s tenuous hold on normalcy 26

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shifts as the economy takes a nose dive. Weatherwax presents a finely drawn central character whose first-person voice drives an acceptable plot, but her imagination flags in other aspects of this debut novel. Characters in Fat River are superficially drawn, and sometimes even Ruthie seems too detached from the story she tells.

A run-of-the-mill mother-daughter story.

DIRTY WORK

Weston, Gabriel Little, Brown (192 pp.) $25.00 | $12.99 e-book | Aug. 12, 2014 978-0-316-23562-4 978-0-316-23562-4 e-book A London doctor is summoned before an ethics board for allegedly botching an abortion in Weston’s fiction debut.

Dr. Nancy Mullion, a fledgling gynecologist, faces a potentially career-ending hearing before a hospital tribunal. Her patient, the subject of the inquiry, lies comatose in the ICU, connected to a ventilator. The hearing, which acts as a frame of sorts for the story, proceeds in increments, as Nancy, too frantic with guilt to focus on defending herself, relives the childhood, young adulthood and professional life that brought her to this pass. Nothing in her relatively benign early life has prepared her for this catastrophe.

A brief and happy stint in America, some romantic disappointments and grueling surgical training have left her psyche mostly unscathed. However, due to social anxiety and a self-confessed inability to say no, she’s been steered into a specialty that her colleagues view as anathema: performing abortions. Nancy is steadfastly pro-choice, and has had an abortion herself, and she begins to see the hypocrisy of a medical system which has marginalized the practitioners who do this “dirty work.” As she recognizes that her unearned status as a pariah and scapegoat has compromised the impartiality of the doctors who are judging her, she is finally able to confront what actually happened in that particular operating theater and come to terms with her conduct. Perhaps out of reluctance to bore or puzzle the layperson, readers are not told in any detail what transpires at the hearings, and as a result, the question of Nancy’s culpability is somewhat blurred. Her ambivalence and her anguish over the impossible dilemmas visited upon both herself and her patients are sharply delineated, however.

A cautionary professional coming-of-age tale which faces the moral quandary posed by abortion head-on.

THE SEA GARDEN

Willett, Marcia Dunne/St. Martin’s (304 pp.) $25.99 | $12.99 e-book | Aug. 12, 2014 978-1-250-04634-5 978-1-4668-4652-4 e-book A satisfying multigenerational novel tying long-ago friends, family and secret lovers to the present.

Willett constructs a tangled web of past loves, lies and infidelities and then slowly straightens the threads, revealing how past events impact family members three generations later. The truth of what happened decades ago on the bank of the Tamar in Cargreen, England, begs to be released when Jess Penhaligon, just out of university, travels to London to receive an art award. Kate Porteous, the widow of the artist for whom the award is named, offers Jess a place to stay. When Jess mentions her grandparents, Kate realizes she knew them and introduces Jess to others who knew them as well, and a family truth slowly comes to light—with all its potential to bring happiness to some, sadness and regret to others, and even death. Readers may think they have things figured out, and just when it seems the story should have ended a chapter ago, Willett adds a twist. The story plods a bit, slowed by the many side stories—albeit interesting—of other characters. The prologue is front-loaded with names. Supporting the character overload with a family tree…or three...would have been appreciated.

New Willett readers may find it taxing to keep the names and relationships clear, but her loyal readers will fare better, recognizing many in the cast of characters, and everything falls into place as the story progresses.

THE AMADO WOMEN

Zamorano, Désireé Cinco Puntos (240 pp.) $16.95 paper | $16.95 e-book | Jul. 1, 2014 978-1-935955-73-3 978-1-935955-74-0 e-book A Latino mother and her grown daughters demonstrate the meaning of family loyalty in Zamorano’s debut.

The Amado women represent a mixture of traditional and modern values, and each defines her life by a set of complex rules. Mercy has spent years church-hopping in an attempt to seek answers to questions of faith rising from a long-buried childhood incident.

Once married to a drunken philanderer, she shrugged aside hardship to pursue her life’s calling—teaching—and waited until her daughters were grown before leaving their father.

Oldest daughter Celeste is a successful investment manager whose early pregnancy and subsequent marriage interrupted the promise of acceptance at any number of Ivy League colleges. Now divorced, she lives in self-imposed exile in a different California city from her family, and she and her youngest

sister, Nataly, are estranged. Nataly suffers from issues of abandonment and supports herself as a waitress to fund her true calling, art, and refuses to talk to her sister. Given the history of her father’s infidelity, she’s alarmed to find herself attracted to an older married man. Middle daughter Sylvia appears to be the most settled of the siblings. From the exterior, life with her up-and-coming husband and two young daughters looks perfect. But Jack’s a self-centered abuser with little conscience whose actions threaten to further harm his wife and girls. When a family emergency looms, the Amado women attempt to skirt their personal differences to provide assistance, but those barriers aren’t completely removed until an even larger crisis occurs.

Zamorano provides a compassionate portrait of a family pushing difficulties aside to help each other; however, despite the author’s attempt to engage readers with multiple plot complications, the book is curiously flat.

m ys t e r y DONE TO DEATH

Atkins, Charles Severn House (224 pp.) $28.95 | Jul. 1, 2014 978-0-7278-8374-2 The show must go on when a television hostess’s murder sends a sleuthing couple behind the scenes to determine which of her enemies had the most to gain from her demise.

In their time together, Ada Strauss and Lil Campbell have faced more than the challenges of being an aging same-sex couple. They’ve had to turn amateur investigators countless times (Best Place to Die, 2013, etc.) to solve the mysteries that keep popping up in little Grenville, Connecticut.

When Lil receives an email from Lenore Says producer Barry Stromstein asking for more information about her “Cash or Trash” antiques column, she has no idea that more of the same awaits.

Barry, under pressure to pitch something different to demanding host Lenore Parks, has taken inspiration from Ada and Lil about how to save his job. After a quick meeting with the two, he comes up with a mix of “Antiques Roadshow meets The Hunger Games on the set of Gilmore Girls” whereby each estate sale turns into a fierce competition. With Ada in place as the host, Barry is sure Final Reckoning will be a hit even though Lenore’s unimpressed. The show’s barely gone into production, however, when Lenore is gunned down in her dressing room. Though suspicion falls on Barry, whose relationship with the mercurial host was less than ideal, public speculation is that Lenore’s unstable daughter, Rachel, may have had a hand in her murder. With Lenore’s other child, Richard, serving as both Barry’s co-producer and Rachel’s |

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only ally, Lil and Ada aren’t sure where to start in their own informal review of suspects and leads.

It doesn’t take much effort to finger the culprit, but Atkins continues to provide the blend of plot development and well-rounded characters that makes the series so successful.

QUEEN OF HEARTS

Bowen, Rhys Berkley Prime Crime (304 pp.) $25.95 | Aug. 5, 2014 978-0-425-26036-4 Being 35th in line for the British throne is no guarantee of a peaceful life for an inveterate amateur sleuth.

Lady Georgiana “Georgie” Rannoch has had much better luck solving mysteries than finding security. Poor as a church mouse, she continues to struggle while her glamorous actress mother, Claire Daniels, roams Europe shedding husbands and lovers. Claire drops into Georgie’s life, pressing her to accompany her to Reno for a quickie divorce so she can marry her wealthy German lover. A fast shopping trip for some decent clothes, and Georgie and her remarkably inept maid, Queenie, are on the Berengaria headed for New York. Georgie is thrilled to discover that her mother’s unofficial fiance, Darcy O’Mara, an Irish aristocrat with many secretive jobs, is on board trying to capture a jewel thief. Dining at the captain’s table, Claire and Georgie, her marriage plans on hold until Darcy can make his fortune, meet fabulously wealthy filmmaker Cy Goldman, fresh from buying more treasures for his California mansion. Also at the table are his mistress, movie star Stella Brightwell; Promila, an Indian princess whose ruby is soon stolen; and the notorious Wallis Simpson, who may also be traveling in search of a divorce.

All of them but Mrs. Simpson and Promila end up in Hollywood, where Cy talks Claire into starring in his new movie and even offers the handsome Darcy a job. Suspecting Stella of being the jewel thief, Darcy is especially pleased to accept an invitation that reunites most of the leading characters at Cy’s hideous country castle. Georgie finds herself back in the familiar role of sleuth when Cy is murdered and the only suspects are the staff and the guests.

Georgie’s charming eighth (Heirs and Graces, 2013, etc.) subordinates its modest mystery to romance, local color and historical tidbits.

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BLESS THE DYING

Bretting, Sandra Five Star (228 pp.) $25.95 | Aug. 20, 2014 978-1-4328-2879-0

A suspicious death at a California hospital turns a public relations specialist into an amateur sleuth.

Rhetta Day’s PR job at St. James Medical Center is changed forever when her college boyfriend Nick Tahari, now a police officer, is admitted in critical condition after an allergic reaction to the iodine used in a simple test. Although Rhetta and Nick once seemed destined for marriage, her horror, stemming from a childhood incident, of his becoming a police officer put paid to their relationship, and Nick eventually married Beryl, a coronary care nurse. As Nick’s condition worsens, Rhetta becomes convinced that this was no accident, but she has a hard time getting access to Nick’s medical records. Meanwhile, a power struggle seethes at the hospital’s top level, and a PR disaster looms when a doctor who’s reportedly on drugs removes the wrong kidney from a patient. People from Nick’s past who turn up at the hospital include a former fraternity brother who was kicked out of school after Nick stopped a dangerous hazing incident. One who doesn’t visit is Nick’s partner, who’s under departmental investigation but still working.

Nick’s high school friend Dr. Eamon McAllister, a newcomer to the hospital staff, romances Rhetta, then admits he paid for medical school by selling drugs. When Nick dies, Rhetta is devastated but more determined than ever to find the truth.

Ditsy Rhetta is neither believable as a sleuth nor compelling as a heroine in Bretting’s (Unholy Lies, 2012) mediocre whodunit.

BEWARE BEWARE

Cha, Steph Minotaur (288 pp.) $25.99 | $12.99 e-book | Aug. 12, 2014 978-1-250-04901-8 978-1-4668-5015-6 e-book A Korean-American woman drifts from Yale into a job as a private investigator.

Juniper Song’s efforts as an amateur sleuth got her best friend killed (Follow Her Home, 2013). Now her friend Chaz Lindley, who’s also her boss at the firm where she’s working as an apprentice, gives her a case of her own. New York artist Daphne Freamon wants Song to keep an eye on her boyfriend, Jamie Landon. Jamie’s working in Los Angeles as a writer for movie star Joe Tilley, and Daphne finds some of his behavior suspicious. Tailing Jamie tells Song that he spends a lot of time partying and probably dealing drugs. When Tilley ends up dead, wrists slashed, in the bathtub of a Hollywood hotel, Jamie, the only one left in the suite after a wild party, becomes a person of

interest. After Daphne flies in from New York, the relationship she and Song were building on the phone becomes stronger as Song tries to help Jamie. Problems erupt in Song’s own life when her roommate, Lori, whom she considers almost a younger sister, is suddenly pursued by a dangerous gangster who has some hold over her uncle. Song turns up information about Daphne and Jamie’s past that raises doubts in her mind about the roles they are playing in Tilley’s murder, but she still trusts the charismatic couple. Even after Daphne breaks up with Jamie once he’s arrested for Tilley’s murder, she still pays Song to prove him innocent. Song’s efforts in both cases get her in trouble, but like her idol Philip Marlowe, she’s determined to do the right thing.

Danger, moral ambiguities, noir atmosphere and twists a snake would find hard to follow abound in this cautionary tale.

MURDER IN RETRIBUTION

Cleeland, Anne Kensington (304 pp.) $24.00 | Jul. 29, 2014 978-0-7582-8797-7

In a second adventure for a husbandand-wife detective team, the couple takes on underworld turf wars and a threat closer to home.

For DC Kathleen Doyle, courtship has come only after her secret marriage to her boss, DCI Michael Sinclair, also known as Lord Acton.

Now she’s pregnant, and though she insists she’s a good Irish Catholic girl who waited for her wedding night, she knows her colleagues are ticking off the months on their fingers. Virtue rewarded means being Lady Acton with all the material perks.

It also means being married to a man who has a neurotic fixation on her, is an acknowledged stalker, and suffers from violent outbursts and black moods she can best treat with trysts on the floor of their luxury flat and the desk of his office. Kathleen doesn’t need her gift for reading people to see that not everyone is as happy about the marriage as she is. Knowing she’s resented by at least one of her colleagues, she works hard to prove herself by investigating a series of tit-for-tat murders between an Irish terrorist group and Russian gangsters. As she struggles with a distressing loss, bouts of illness and the challenge of balancing her work with her marriage to a husband who’s also her supervisor, her devotion to Acton is almost a match for his. Indeed, the depth of her feeling causes her to make light of his questionable, creepy and sometimes-shocking ways of proving his love for her.

And her sixth sense about who’s out to get her seems to desert her when she most needs it.

Although Cleeland (Murder in Thrall, 2013) writes with wit and flair, her attempt to bring freshness to the well-worn pairing of a naïve and penniless younger woman with a rich, brooding older man is more disturbing than romantic.

ROBERT B. PARKER’S BLIND SPOT

Coleman, Reed Farrel Putnam (352 pp.) $26.95 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-399-16945-8

Coleman (The Hollow Girl, 2014, etc.) follows Michael Brandman (Robert B. Parker’s Damned If You Do, 2013, etc.) into the Jesse Stone franchise, with results that couldn’t be more different.

Before Jesse Stone was police chief of Paradise, Massachusetts, or put in his time on the LAPD, he was a shortstop with the Albuquerque Dukes, the Dodgers’ Triple A club, his dreams of big-league glory canceled when a double-play ball relayed by second baseman Vic Prado and a runner’s hard slide into second took out his shoulder for good. Now Prado, of all people, is hosting a Dukes reunion in New York that Jesse feels honor-bound to attend. He’s never been close to the golden boy who stole his girlfriend Kayla, married her, became a major league All Star and retired to become a wealthy venture capitalist, and he has no idea Prado organized this event just so he could involve Jesse in his latest venture. Although Jesse does take the time to bed Kayla’s friend Dee Harrington, Prado’s scheme to rope him in never gets off the ground because Jesse has to scuttle back home to investigate the murder of Tufts student Martina Penworth, 18, and the disappearance of her boyfriend, Benjamin Salter, the only suspect. He has no idea that the crimes in his backyard are as closely linked to Prado as his failure to make it to the majors. Meanwhile, Prado’s mobbed-up colleagues decide they overreached in kidnapping Ben Salter to bend his father, Harlan Salter IV, to their will and offer to make peace by withdrawing the demand they’d made on him. Dad has other ideas. If this all sounds more like Coleman than Parker, wait till you hear the dialogue. More densely and diffusely plotted and less punchy than its original, with characters who often speak in complete sentences.

If the Parker estate keeps pouring new wine into old bottles, who’ll be the next vintner? Mary Higgins Clark?

Andrew Vachss? Janet Evanovich?

TERMINATED

Daniel, Ray Midnight Ink/Llewellyn (336 pp.) $14.99 paper | Aug. 8, 2014 978-0-7387-4069-0 A Boston software debugger whose company has inexplicably tossed him away gets a chance for justice and revenge in Daniel’s first novel.

Aloysius Tucker had always thought of Nate Russo, vice president of product development at MantaSoft, as a second father. So he’s stunned when Nate calls him into his office and fires him from his job running the Rosetta project, a decryption system that will allow |

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any corporation that installs it to read its employees’ encrypted files. Turned out of his job, Tucker drives home to find that his wife, Carol—who worked with him on Rosetta—has been terminated too, her throat cut. Nothing happens for six months.

Then the murder of Alice Barton, the assistant Carol hired to help her manage the software code, puts the case once more in the sights of Tucker’s old friend Kevin Murphy, of the FBI’s cybercrimes division—and then even more dramatically in Tucker’s sights after Kevin is gunned down before his horrified eyes. Hired by Nate once more to do due diligence on Bronte Software, a company MantaSoft is looking to acquire, Tucker finds himself swimming uncomfortably with the crowd jockeying for control of Rosetta, especially his despicable British replacement, Roland Baker; MantaSoft CEO Jack Kennings; and Margaret Bronte, the enigmatic founder of Bronte Software—someone, it turns out, with whom Tucker has already spent some quality time. His relationships with these players are further complicated by the running dialogue he carries on with Carol, the wife he sorely neglected for his job, who now continues to provide caustic commentary on his every move from beyond the grave.

A lively debut rated R for cyberporn, sexual violence, coincidences and geek cuisine.

DEAD FLOAT

Easley, Warren C. Poisoned Pen (284 pp.) $24.95 | $14.95 paper | $6.99 e-book $22.95 Lg. Prt. | Jul. 1, 2014 978-1-4642-0266-7 978-1-4642-0268-1 paper 978-1-4642-0269-8 e-book 978-1-4642-0267-4 Lg. Prt. A former lawyer finds that leading a fishing expedition isn’t quite the respite he was expecting when a customer is murdered on the trip.

Ever since he left his high-pressure job as an LA prosecutor, Cal Claxton has been looking for a little peace and quiet.

Walks with his loyal dog, Archie, and trout fishing on Oregon’s Deschutes River now fill his time. Cal expects an equally relaxed few days when he agrees to lead a fishing trip for his friend Philip Lone Deer. Almost immediately, however, the drama begins when Cal realizes the trip is for Hal Bruckner, head of up-and-coming NanoTech. Not only do Hal’s companions have poorly hidden disagreements about the Diamond Wire Project the company is planning, but Hal’s wife, Alexis, has a personal (very personal) history with Cal. Luckily, Hal had the foresight to hire Daina Zakaris, a consultant with Accelerated Management Development, to help with the professional transition.

Daina gets some of the animosity out in the open and begins to develop communication among the four members of NanoTech’s management team. But she doesn’t seem to have been so successful at having the team confront conflict: They awaken to find Hal’s been murdered. While it’s obvious to Cal that someone must have been hired to kill Hal, local cops believe Cal may 30

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be to blame. Clearly, the best way to prove his innocence is to find out who’s behind Hal’s death.

Easley’s second continues to flesh out Cal’s character but sets him against some two-dimensional bad guys. It’s an improvement over Matters of Doubt (2013), but the nittygritty details still don’t sing out.

THE DISCRETIONIST

Hawvermale, Lance Five Star (340 pp.) $25.95 | Jul. 16, 2014 978-1-4328-2866-0

A Las Vegas chauffeur’s well-regulated life veers off track when he makes a dangerous enemy.

Micah Donovan, owner and sole operator of the One Cool Gentleman Limousine Service, has made a career of minding his own business. He drives clients where they want to go and asks no questions about what they do behind the smoked partition of his fancy stretch limo. Nor do they ask anything about him; as a black driver in a black tuxedo, he’s as good as invisible. He’s also compulsively orderly and devoted to his work, even though his only friend, ex-cop Ernie “Tully” Tullmacher, is always after him to have a little fun. Micah has good reason to hate Tully because of a past accident, but the old man is all he’s got. His carefully constructed life changes forever the night he picks up Austin Savlodar, a wealthy man with criminal ties, and breaks one of his own rules: He turns on the intercom and learns a disturbing fact about his passenger. Micah breaks a second rule when he steps between Savlodar and Katelyn Presley, a pretty dancer. It’s more than her bright blue eyes that make Micah take a risk and go on the run with her when he unwittingly starts a chain reaction of vengeance and violence. Those eyes see past the tux Micah has worn as a shield, and Katelyn teaches him more than just how to waltz while they’re in hiding. You can’t help rooting for the heroine to work her sweet and saucy magic on the cautious hero. When they face an even more relentless foe than Savlodar, Micah wonders if he’ll ever get his old life back, or any life at all.

Luckily, Hawvermale (The Tongue Merchant, 2008), balancing suspense with character study, includes enough pauses between the adrenaline-pumping scenes to give his leads the time they need to grow.

“...Salgado is one of the more appealing world-weary police detectives in crime fiction—and Barcelona (where the author lives) provides a fresh backdrop for the action.” from the good suicides

THE SPIRIT AND THE SKULL

Hayes, J.M. Poisoned Pen (250 pp.) $24.95 | $14.95 paper | $6.99 e-book $22.95 Lg. Prt. | Aug. 5, 2014 978-1-4642-0282-7 978-1-4642-0284-1 paper 978-1-4642-0285-8 e-book 978-1-4642-0283-4 Lg. Prt. The Earth Mother commands a Paleolithic Spirit Man to solve a murder.

Raven, a Spirit Man who doubts the existence of spirits, has never been sure of his worth in the role, but at his advanced age, he’s acquired enough wisdom to put on a good show. His small tribe is part of The People, who are migrating across the far north of Alaska, following the vast herds of animals that provide for most of their needs. When Tall Pine, one of the tribe’s leaders, is found garroted, Raven realizes the killer must be one of their own band. That night, he dreams his skull is in a strange hut, being held in the hands of a strange man; Raven can understand him when he speaks. When another member of the tribe is killed and a third wounded on a hunting trip, the Earth Mother who shares a body with Raven’s wife, Willow, who he thought had drowned many years earlier, tells Raven that he must solve the murders. After Raven runs away with Down, the clever daughter of Stone, the tribal head who dislikes Raven but fears his power, the Mother convinces the members of the tribe, who have been hunting the pair, that they will not be healed unless Raven solves the crimes. Meanwhile, Raven continues to have painfully prophetic dreams revealing the horrors that will be wrought on his land by oil exploration in the centuries to come. It’s hard for a nonbeliever like Raven to be both a detective and a Spirit Man, reconciling the past and trying to change the future to please a goddess he isn’t sure exists.

Hayes, best known for his Mad Dog & Englishman series (English Lessons, 2011, etc.), draws on his expertise in archaeology and anthropology in this stand-alone. The mystery is slight, but the portrait of tribal life and the lyrical descriptions of an untouched land are worth the read.

THE GOOD SUICIDES

Hill, Antonio Crown (352 pp.) $26.00 | Jun. 17, 2014 978-0-7704-3590-5

In frigid Barcelona, senior members of a cosmetics company are dying by what appears to be suicide, each having received an email warning accompanied by a disturbing photo of dead dogs hanging from a tree.

Inspector Héctor Salgado is still reeling from the events in Hill’s terrific debut, The Summer of Dead Toys (2013), in which his strong-willed wife, Ruth, left him for a woman and then

disappeared. An Argentinian who recently relocated to Spain, he’s smoking too much and sleeping too little. The suicides, including that of a young Austrian woman who leaped in front of a train, followed a company retreat in a house deep in the woods. That’s where the dogs met their sad fate. While Salgado investigates the deaths, Leire Castro, a pregnant young cop on maternity leave “due to some rogue early contractions,” takes it on herself to look into Ruth’s disappearance. She’s convinced that Salgado is too close to the case to conduct a careful investigation.

She revisits his violent confrontation with a doctor involved in a trafficking scheme and befriends his likable 14-year-old son, Guillermo. This book isn’t as gripping or thematically rich as its predecessor; Hill follows the multiple-suspect Agatha Christie model a bit too closely. But his gallery of characters is exceptionally well-drawn—Salgado is one of the more appealing worldweary police detectives in crime fiction—and Barcelona (where the author lives) provides a fresh backdrop for the action.

Another strong effort by the Spanish novelist, who again sets us up for the next installment of the series with a tantalizing ending.

AVOIDABLE CONTACT

Kaehler, Tammy Poisoned Pen (250 pp.) $24.95 | $14.95 paper | $6.99 e-book $22.95 Lg. Prt. | Aug. 1, 2014 978-1-4642-0236-0 978-1-4642-0238-4 paper 978-1-4642-0239-1 e-book 978-1-4642-0237-7 Lg. Prt. The 24 Hours of Daytona is murder in more ways than one.

Kate Reilly, a professional race car driver and amateur detective, never expects to slip into that second role while running the 24-hour endurance race as part of the Sandham Swift racing team. Before she can take her turn in the team’s No. 28 Corvette, the police inform her that her boyfriend, Stuart Telarday, was targeted by a hit-and-run driver who left him with life-threatening injuries. Kate joins her best friend and manager, Holly Wilson, in search of information that will identify the mystery driver. On the track, where seasoned professionals race alongside amateurs, the wrecks pile up. One of them kills Kate’s teammate Ian Davenport in a suspicious accident. Kate tries to keep her mind on racing, but it’s hard for her to focus when her newfound race car driving uncle and two cousins seem to be at the center of the problem. Brought up by her grandparents, Kate only recently met her father, and except for him and her cousin Lara, she’s gotten a chilly reception from her relatives.

Meanwhile, she’s also received texts from a reporter working on a story about wealthy Richard Arena, whose racing team is evidently cleaner than his other business interests. The carnage on the track is nothing compared to some of the back-stabbing and double-dealing in the pits. Kate has to balance her turns in the car with her investigation, which soon leads to a murder that can’t be written off as an accident. |

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Kate’s third (Braking Points, 2013, etc.) will be a joy to racing fans hungry for inside dope. The mystery itself takes a back seat.

REALLY THE BLUES

Koenig, Joseph Pegasus Crime (304 pp.) $25.95 | Aug. 15, 2014 978-1-60598-581-7

A sweet gig at a Paris jazz club gets bollixed up when the drummer and his gal commit suicide...or was it murder?

Even though the United States has not yet entered what will become World War II in 1941, the occupied city of Paris hardly seems like the perfect spot for an American jazz musician. But trumpeter Eddie Piron likes it just fine. He isn’t political enough to care that he’s a big hit with the Nazis at La Caverne Negre. Not so Danish drummer Borge Janssen, who abruptly decides to quit, cutting the combo down from seven to six. Make that five when Janssen’s punch compromises Eddie’s lip for a while. Shortly after, a pair of grim cops comes to question Eddie, telling him Janssen has jumped off a bridge to his death. It seems like suicide until Eddie learns that Janssen’s livein girlfriend, Anne Cartier, recently died by putting her head in the oven. Official investigators Maj. Weiler and Col. Maier have a considerable file on Janssen that includes allegations of subversion and violence against the German nation. As Weiler and Maier proceed methodically through their investigation, Eddie, band mate Weskers and club manager Roquentin evince a bit more internal tension. Thad Simone, an avid new fan, is not who he appears to be—but then, that also might be said of Eddie. And then there’s the seeming reappearance of Anne Cartier, just a step ahead of Maier and Weiler.

Grounding his subtle and complex thriller in rewardingly nuanced characters, Koenig (False Negative, 2012, etc.) creates an atmospheric world and delivers a series of satisfying surprises.

THE SECOND DEADLY SIN

Larsson, Åsa Translated by Thompson, Laurie MacLehose Press (352 pp.) $26.99 | Aug. 12, 2014 978-1-62365-139-8

Another heinous murder in the frozen north.

In the tradition of modern Nordic crime fiction popularized by another Larsson, this is a stark, bloody book with strong female leads. There are two separate but related stories running parallel: the modern-day murder of a waitress and the tale of the victim’s grandmother, who was murdered many years 32

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earlier. When a woman is found slain and her small grandson missing, Rebecka Martinsson, a prosecutor in cold, sometimesbarren Northern Sweden, once again teams up with detective Anna-Maria Mella to solve the crime. But when Martinsson crosses a vain and incompetent prosecutor who wants the case, he takes it over, and she goes on vacation. Though she’s off the case, she hasn’t quit looking into it. She thinks there’s a correlation between the killings of several members of the same family: The woman, her son, her father and grandmother all died under mysterious circumstances. As Martinsson gets closer to the truth, she and the victim’s grandson become vulnerable, bringing them closer to danger and the truth about all the killings.

Larsson’s writings have the same dark and bloody bleakness that readers of Scandinavian crime fiction crave, and the details of the twin cases prove compelling. Even more interesting than the crimes themselves, though, are the day-to-day details of life in both present-day and turn-of-the-century Northern Sweden, where winter’s brutality is a normal component of life.

One warning: Sensitive readers may find some aspects of the novel disturbing. The real draws here are neither the crimes nor the accompanying mysteries, but rather the deeply compelling atmosphere.

The translation proves odd and stiff in places, veering between American and British colloquialisms, but this glimpse into Swedish life in the boonies is fascinating.

BAGMEN

Lashner, William Thomas & Mercer (396 pp.) $14.95 paper | Aug. 5, 2014 978-1-477-82283-8 Apparently, underemployed Philadelphia lawyer Victor Carl’s first seven cases (A Killer’s Kiss, 2007, etc.) have left him sufficiently starry-eyed to be capable of rude disillusionment when he runs into a bruising congressional campaign, and vice versa.

Congressman Peter DeMathis’ usual bagman, Colin Frost, has been picked up with too much heroin for his own personal use. Although Victor’s old classmate Melanie Brooks gets Victor to take the case, and the judge is persuaded to throw out the crucial evidence by a broad hint of blackmail, Frost’s gotten enough unwanted publicity to make him anathema to DeMathis. So Melanie invites Victor to take his place and deliver a $50,000 extortion payment to inoffensive Jessica Barnes. The fallout is immediate. Very soon after their meeting, Jessica is battered to death, and the police pluck Victor from the Governor’s Ball and send him shrieking into the headlines as well.

On the other hand, there’s an upside: When Victor enters his office the next day, it’s full of potential clients who assume he has a long history as a bagman and want to hire him as their own personal fixer. Seeing no reason why he shouldn’t enjoy the silver lining along with the cloud, Victor allows veteran fixer Stony Mulroney, in the tale’s most amusing episode, to initiate him

into the Fellowship of the Bag, a select circle of well-connected specialists who fix each other’s problems for an undisclosed markup. But there’s no way his job for the congressman or his fling with Ossana DeMathis, the congressman’s sister, are going to come to happy ends.

Vigorous but routine, with a particularly thin set of bogeymen behind the felonies. And isn’t it about time hardbitten Victor, who improbably turns crusader toward the end of this installment, lost his last illusions about politics, ethics and the Philadelphia bar?

THE DEVIL’S CHAIR

Masters, Priscilla Severn House (224 pp.) $27.95 | Aug. 1, 2014 978-0-7278-8389-6

A four-year-old child vanishes so completely that rumor has it the devil took her.

Drunken Tracy Walsh has an argument with her boyfriend, Neil Mansfield; snatches her screaming daughter, Daisy, from her bed; and takes off up the Burway toward the Devil’s Chair, an area of England long associated with witchcraft and strange happenings. Early the next morning, an unidentified caller reports a crashed car with a woman inside. Tracy is rushed to the hospital in critical condition, but a massive search turns up no trace of Daisy save one of her slippers. Leading the case is DI Alex Randall, whose wife is mentally ill. He’s made coroner Martha Gunn his sounding board on tough cases even as they fight their attraction for each other. The police leave no stone unturned. Re-examining the empty cottage from which the emergency call was made, they find another slipper that hadn’t been there when they first searched. The owner of the cottage, who’s been out of the country, has a checkered history: Years before she’d been accused of murdering her entire family with poisonous mushrooms. Neil, always much more loving and engaged with Daisy than her mother was, is having an affair with a client who desperately wants a child. When Tracy dies, her estranged family takes a sudden interest in the beautiful Daisy because it appears they might make some money from her tragic story. The enigmatic clues someone is providing the police lead nowhere until Martha dredges up an old memory that will help crack the mystifying case.

Masters (Smoke Alarm, 2012, etc.) provides another entertaining procedural whose twists will keep you guessing.

MOTOR CITY BURNING

Morris, Bill Pegasus Crime (288 pp.) $24.95 | Jul. 15, 2014 978-1-60598-573-2

A former Freedom Rider and a determined detective face unfinished business in the aftermath of the Detroit riots.

Willie Bledsoe has left Alabama for the Motor City to write a memoir about how he lost faith in the civil rights movement even before the recent assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Although Willie is articulate and educated, the only work Detroit seems to offer a young black man is as a busboy at an all-white country club. But race doesn’t seem to matter at Tiger Stadium, and in watching the battle for the pennant, Willie can forget for a while the part he played in the race riots the previous year. Frank Doyle, a detective with a gift for getting people to talk, is less willing to forget, since he’s handling one of the two remaining homicide cases from the riots. The victim was the wife of a store owner in Frank’s neighborhood. A sexy art student working as a waitress and late-night one-way talks with his father, who died on the job at the Ford complex called the Rouge, offer Frank comfort but don’t bring him answers. Then a new break comes when a witness recalls seeing two men go up to the roof and hearing them fire guns. While Frank’s searching for more clues, Willie’s trying to stay one step ahead of a past that’s catching up with him in a city of flashy cars and Motown music, wealthy suburbs and burned-out neighborhoods, civic pride and despair.

As usual, Morris (All Souls’ Day, 1997, etc.) uses historical figures and events, as well as a uniquely American city, as a backdrop for an intense cat-and-mouse game, though it’s not clear who’s the cat and who’s the mouse.

THE MARRIAGE AT THE RUE MORGUE

Powell, Jessie Bishop Five Star (290 pp.) $25.95 | Jul. 16, 2014 978-1-4328-2867-7

An escaped orangutan and a grisly murder blight a longtime pair’s wedding in this nod to Edgar Allan Poe. A piece of flying chimp poop isn’t exactly the stuff of romance. But for Lance Lakeland and Noel Rue, it’s part of the workaday world of the Midwest Primate Sanctuary in Ironweed, Ohio. When a new arrival, a powerful and agitated orangutan, escapes its crate, Rue and Lance would ordinarily stay to help Art Hooper, the impulsive but bighearted director of the sanctuary, capture the escapee humanely. But the couple is getting married the next day, and Art sends them on their way to deal with the trifling items—the marriage license, the dress fitting and most of the decorations—they’ve left till the last minute. A further |

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complication is that Lance’s brother, who is also Rue’s former boyfriend, is coming to the wedding, along with Lance’s nightmarish mother-in-law-to-be. In the midst of wedding plans, the couple is called back to the sanctuary, where a bloodied and dying Art lies covered with orangutan hair. Rue is almost too upset to go through with the ceremony, but Lance won’t hear of postponing it, even though he’s just lost his boss and best man.

When he and Rue try to make sense of Art’s last words and figure out why he was going to collect a video just before he died, they’re sucked into a homicidal and nuptial swirl of sanctuary secrets, bridesmaids’ crises and family antics.

In this series debut, Powell (Divorce: A Love Story, 2011) bounces from arch humor to tragedy and back again. Lovably eccentric characters maintain a slight edge over sentimentality in what is most likely the finest simian cozy to date.

CAT ON A COLD TIN ROOF

Resnick, Mike Seventh Street/Prometheus (250 pp.) $15.95 paper | $11.99 e-book Aug. 5, 2014 978-1-61614-889-8 978-1-61614-890-4 e-book Cincinnati private eye Eli Paxton (The Trojan Colt, 2013, etc.) and his West Highland white terrier, Marlowe, get hired to find a cat worth a lot more than your cat.

Yes, yes, someone definitely did shoot Malcolm Pepperidge to death while he was taking advantage of a break in a late-night snowstorm to check out the stars from a telescope on his balcony. And since Pepperidge used to be Big Jim Palanto, financial adviser to the Chicago Mafia, whose retirement 15 years ago didn’t stop the police from recently inviting him to testify against his old intimates, there’s no shortage of suspects for the police to worry about. But as grieving widow Evangeline Pepperidge, formerly Velma Palanto, tells Eli, “Forget him!...Just find the fucking cat!” It seems that her beloved Fluffy ran off during the kerfuffle, and she’ll be inconsolable until her return.

Or even after, as Eli realizes when his inquiries among local animal shelters disclose Fluffy’s whereabouts and he restores her to her distraught owner, only to be clapped in jail because the sorely missed feline is minus a bejeweled collar worth $10 million, or $1 million, or $100,000, depending whom you believe.

Eli doesn’t own a GPS or a cellphone or a computer, but he knows how to make a deal, and in the course of this waggish, low-energy adventure, he strikes up ad hoc partnerships with his landlady, Ms. Cominsky; with Lt. Jim Simmons, of the Cincinnati Police; with Val Sorrentino, of the Chicago Mafia; with a trio of Bolivian gunmen who are just as interested in that cat collar as he is; and with several obliging jewelers, the most obliging of whom gets shot for his troubles.

Veteran Resnick provides smiles instead of laughs, vague bewilderment instead of mystery, and very limited doses of mostly offstage action. The results are guaranteed to keep your blood pressure well under control.

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THE SCENT OF DEATH

Rowlands, Betty Severn House (224 pp.) $28.95 | Aug. 1, 2014 978-0-7278-8391-9

When a music buff is murdered, DC Sukey Reynolds (Unnatural Wastage, 2012, etc.) toggles between helping her boss, DI Rathbone, and her boyfriend, reporter Harry Matthews.

Lance Rainbird is a man of few words, and most of those show off his vast knowledge of classical music. Many of the ladies who attend Justin Freeman’s musical programs are charmed by Lance, but the men don’t cotton to him. Lance looks down his nose at Romeo, an itinerant singer who makes a living busking and always gives a recital at Freeman’s annual musical weekend at the Dallington Manor Hotel.

This year, though, Lance isn’t around to sneer at the talented amateur; the night before the performance, he’s found drowned in the pond outside. Newly promoted DI Rathbone, anxious to clear his first case, sends not only Sukey, but DS Vicky Armstrong and two uniformed officers to interview everyone on the scene. The four start off by having coffee while they wait for the participants to be on break. They interview the participants, then break for more coffee before reporting their scant findings to an impatient Rathbone. At home, Sukey treads carefully.

She wants to help Harry get a story but doesn’t want to divulge details that compromise the case. Luckily, Harry has a brain wave and invites Sukey to London, where she searches Rainbird’s apartment for clues. When she shares what she learns with Vicky, the two are in a position to reinterview several suspects, after stopping, of course, for coffee. But it isn’t until Rathbone invites the team to his office for coffee that Sukey has one of her famous hunches that allows the team to solve a baffling crime.

Rowlands might as well have set this case in Starbucks, since it comes from the last inch of the pot.

DEADLY INTENT

Sweeney, Anna Severn House (256 pp.) $28.95 | Jul. 1, 2014 978-0-7278-8369-8 Wayward guests and a dead entrepreneur plague the owners of an Irish bed-and-breakfast.

When Nessa McDermott left Dublin and her job as a reporter to open a guesthouse with her husband, Patrick Latif, she was expecting a quieter lifestyle. Their inn, Cnoc Meala (Honey Hill), is on the picturesque Beara Peninsula in West Cork. It seems a perfect place to raise their two children and guide walking tours. But when a neighbor finds Maureen Scurlock, Nessa’s guest, unconscious on an old trail, Maureen

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isn’t dressed for walking; she’s wearing teetery high heels and smells of alcohol. Her blatant flirting with a wealthy businessman, in fact, has made her husband so angry that he gets drunk and attacks Nessa. As if the poor innkeeper didn’t have enough to deal with while Patrick’s off visiting a relative in Africa, the businessman disappears. Then Redmond Joyce, a cop impatient with country living, is dispatched on a routine search for a dead animal and instead finds a human body in a garbage bag. The corpse may be grisly, but Joyce gets the adrenaline he craves from the case, which he sees as his ticket to a job in Dublin.

Husbands, wives and children come under his zealous scrutiny as he searches the beautiful Irish countryside for ugly secrets.

Although this debut’s slow exposition, like many of its characters, could use a pick-me-up, Sweeney fits the pieces together competently and even manages a surprise or two.

FOOL’S ASSASSIN

Hobb, Robin Del Rey/Ballantine (688 pp.) $28.00 | $13.99 e-book | Aug. 12, 2014 978-0-553-39242-5 978-0-553-39243-2 e-book Series: Fitz and the Fool, 1 After a decade, Hobb (Fool’s Fate, 2004, etc.) again takes up the characters from the Farseer series.

In this world of magic, the high born despise the Wit, an ability to connect to the minds of animals, yet prize the Skill, a powerful magic possessed by most of the Farseer kings and their kin. FitzChivalry Farseer, royal bastard and former king’s assassin, has abandoned intrigue and, posing as Tom Badgerlock, holder of the Withywoods estate, lives the life bucolic. He’s married to his childhood sweetheart, Molly, upon whom he dotes. Indeed, at the time of the midwinter festivals, he ignores a possibly important messenger in favor of pleasing her, and when he finally remembers, the messenger has vanished—possibly abducted by a group of pale strangers. Tom, though, makes no serious effort to discover anything about these mysterious events, being wholly occupied by family matters.

Hundreds of pages, literally and figuratively, dawdle by. In his more contemplative moments, Tom wonders why he’s received no messages from the Fool, his companion and ally through the first six books. Then 50-something Molly insists she’s pregnant.

More than a year passes. Molly’s belly swells, slowly. Still nobody believes her, least of all Tom, though even the servants are careful to humor her. Finally, to general astonishment, she gives birth to a strange, tiny, pale girl she and Tom name Bee. The girl seems to be simple-minded and, although she feeds eagerly, grows as slowly as her gestation. Years pass. Tenacious readers eventually will be rewarded. With a cliffhanger.

Hobb is hardly the first to stumble in reviving a longdormant series, nor will she be the last.

TRAITOR’S STORM

Trow, M.J. Creme de la Crime (224 pp.) $28.95 | Aug. 1, 2014 978-1-78029-062-1 Christopher Marlowe finds inspiration and intrigue in the threat of a Spanish invasion.

Spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham, suspecting a cuckoo in the nest on the Isle of Wight, dispatches Kit Marlowe— playwright, poet and spy—to find missing agent Harry Hasler and help flush out the traitor. The island, perilously close to the continent, is in danger of King Philip of Spain’s darling project: the invasion of England with his mighty fleet. The possibility that the Armada will make landfall on the Wight makes Marlowe’s mission urgent. Under the guise of Writer in Residence to Wight’s governor, Sir George Carey, cousin of Queen Elizabeth, Marlowe sails to the island and steps off the boat into a mystery. A man’s body has been found headfirst in a drain in Bottom Field. The decedent is not, as Marlowe fears, the missing Hasler, but local landowner/toady Walter Hunnybun. The unfortunate Hunnybun doesn’t even get a grave to himself; preceding him is another corpse, a freshly murdered lawyer who had a closer connection to Sir George than the governor knows. Those two deaths are only the most recent under Carey’s watch. While Marlowe’s trying to find Hasler and identify the killer, he must also prepare a masque at Carey’s request, create a suitable part for Carey’s redoubtable sister and ghostwrite a speech for Queen Elizabeth. During his undercover efforts to learn who’s loyal, who’s not, and what’s been written in a secret code, the watch is out for Spanish sails in an island adventure that gives Marlowe the inspiration for a play to rival that of one Master Shaxsper.

Trow (Silent Court, 2012, etc.) brings back Marlowe for another bawdy and loosely historical caper. Scattered anachronisms and inaccuracies don’t detract from this Tudor undertaking nearly as much as the hero, who remains something of a cipher. |

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r om a n c e THE BEST KIND OF TROUBLE

Dane, Lauren Harlequin (384 pp.) $7.99 paper | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-373-77934-5

When former wild child Natalie Clayton reconnects with Paddy Hurley, former fling–turned–famous rock star, she’s determined to resist him, but he has a few tricks up his sleeve that might convince her to give him a chance.

Natalie has spent her adult life overcoming a tumultuous childhood and her party-girl teen years, which included a hot and heavy two-week affair with Paddy, an up-and-coming rock star, the year before she went to college. Now a respectable librarian in a small town, she’s completely distanced herself from her wanton past, and while she’s aware that her new home is also the hometown of the Hurley brothers, who’ve now made it big in the rock world, she never expected to run into any of them. And never had, until now. Meeting Paddy throws Natalie for a loop, especially when he recognizes her and becomes set on revisiting their past. Except he seems eager to forge something real this time. At first resolved to ignore him, Natalie is swayed by his slow, sweet courtship. As she is drawn in by his family and seduced by his sexy steadfastness, she begins to open her heart, though once the band goes on tour, and her own estranged family takes advantage of the unwelcome publicity that comes with her connection to Paddy, their relationship becomes strained. It will take a lot of trust and understanding to make it through the crazy and into a forever love. Dane pens a sexy, layered romance, with some typical rock-star conflicts but also some touching and realistic family drama. The author shines at creating character-authentic conflict—and writing a very steamy sex scene.

The perfect combination of sexy rock-star fantasy and emotionally tender romance.

ROGUE WITH A BROGUE

Enoch, Suzanne St. Martin’s (352 pp.) $7.99 paper | Jul. 29, 2014 978-1-250-04161-6

Sparks fly when Arran MacLawry and Mary Campbell meet at a London ball, and the fact that their families are sworn enemies only adds to their interest in each other.

Trying to escape the annoying clutches of his sister’s best friend at a masked ball, Arran bumps into an unknown woman whom he asks to dance.

The two definitely feel an attraction, but once the waltz is 36

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over, his sister informs him that the woman is none other than Mary Campbell, granddaughter of the leader of an enemy clan.

At first convinced she was trying to make a fool of him, Arran confronts her, but she confounds him by turning his attack into a conversation and then finagling him into spending time in her company, which he enjoys more than he ever expected.

Their awareness and interest grow, but both Arran and Mary have potential arranged marriages hanging over them, all the better to keep alliances strong and a negotiated peace in place among all the clans. When a misstep leads to the discovery of their relationship, Mary’s family tries to force her into marrying a brute, and Arran rescues her with plans to elope to Scotland. Hunted by Mary’s family and possibly his, they commit to a dangerous path and face betrayal but find shelter and aid in unexpected places. A charming, fun, sexy Highlander version of Romeo and Juliet—or rather an anti-version, since it promises a happily-ever-after.

Scottish clan wars, a Regency sensibility and starcrossed lovers make for a sensual, captivating romance.

THE SWEET SPOT

Evanovich, Stephanie Morrow/HarperCollins (352 pp.) $26.99 | Jul. 8, 2014 978-0-06-223481-0 A restaurant owner falls for a baseball hunk with a surprising secret in this breezy romance from Evanovich (Big Girl Panties, 2013).

Amanda Cole is doing just fine on her own, so she barely blinks when sports stud Chase Walker strolls into her restaurant. She’s not interested in being a baseball girlfriend, but Chase has other ideas. He’s willing to show up at her restaurant every day until Amanda agrees to give him a chance—and once she does, she falls hard. Chase is sweet, successful and pretty much perfect— but his out-of-the-box sexual preferences come as a surprise.

When their private life suddenly becomes very public, the ensuing press kerfuffle makes Amanda rethink their entire relationship. Can she accept Chase for who he is, in and out of the bedroom? The answer most likely won’t surprise you, but that’s no problem. Fans of Evanovich’s debut, where these characters first appear, know the two end up together anyway. The fun comes from their journey to the altar, and there’s plenty of conflict (and more than one blush-worthy sex scene) along the way.

Chase’s domineering personality and preferences can sometimes make him seem more like a growling alpha male than a sexy romantic hero, but for the most part, he comes off as a loving partner. Meanwhile, Amanda’s sassy retorts, her frequently mentioned curvy figure and her believable concerns make her an appealing heroine.

A sports-filled romance full of steamy sex scenes that will please Evanovich’s fans.

LOVE AND LET SPY

HEROES ARE MY WEAKNESS

Galen, Shana Sourcebooks Casablanca (384 pp.) $7.99 paper | Aug. 5, 2014 978-1-4022-9173-9 Despite her success as a spy, Jane Bonde is still beholden to strict social mores, so when her spymaster uncle pressures her to marry enigmatic Dominic Griffyn, she’s totally conflicted.

Bonde, Jane Bonde, has trained from a young age to be the best spy England’s supersecret Barbican group has to offer. On an intellectual level, she understands her uncle’s desire to see her married, since it’s difficult to navigate society as a single young lady. However, to be ordered to marry a man she’s never met gets Jane’s back up.

Then, when she meets the darkly handsome Griffyn, she finds him wildly attractive, which is a wholly unwelcome distraction, since she’s trying to vanquish the evil villain Foncé, who’s sworn to destroy the Barbican group and bring England to its knees. At first, Griffyn is against marrying her, too, but everything about him is a mystery, and if there’s one thing Jane can’t resist, it’s a puzzle. Of course, the fact that his kisses drive her crazy doesn’t help, and then there’s the way he steps up to every challenge; better than some men trained for years to control the chaos and danger of her field. For his part, unsavory events from Griffyn’s childhood mire him in guilt and feelings of unworthiness, and he has convinced himself he will never marry. But the exquisite and exceptional Jane may be just the woman to treat his psychological wounds, if they can defeat the maniacal Foncé and forge a future together. Galen pens a delightful, entertaining James Bond homage in her newest spy-based Regency romance; from the very first 007-inspired chase scene, we’re hooked by the adventure and physical jeopardy, and we keep reading for the emotional risks and high-stakes love story unfolding between Jane and Griffyn.

The fun, ebullient spy-driven plot is gratifyingly overthe-top in a Bond-movie way, while the romantic arc remains authentic and affecting.

Phillips, Susan Elizabeth Morrow/HarperCollins (384 pp.) $26.99 | $15.99 e-book | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-06-210607-0 978-0-06-210611-7 e-book Sick, broke and homeless, Annie Hewitt must retreat to the cottage her mother left her, even if it is on a remote island off the coast of Maine—and even if Theo Harp, the boy who tried to kill her when they were teenagers and who is now a best-selling horror author, is ensconced in the Gothic mansion next door.

After making her narcissistic mother’s last days as pleasant as possible, Annie falls ill with pneumonia and bottoms out financially. Desperate, she makes her way to Moonraker Cottage, the small home Mariah loved and bequeathed to Annie, along with a deathbed promise of a valuable legacy hidden there. Annie has avoided the island since she was a teen, when she developed a huge crush on Theo—the psychopathic boy who played on her emotions and ultimately tried to kill her. She’d like nothing better than to never see him again, but once she arrives, in the dead of winter, she finds herself drawn into the lives of the people at Harp House: Jaycie, the injured housekeeper with a tragic past; her mute daughter, Livia; and Theo himself, sexy as sin and, she realizes, completely different from the evil teen she remembers.

The longer Annie stays, the more it becomes clear that someone doesn’t want her there, but for the first time in her life, she feels a sense of purpose and belonging, and she’s not going anywhere without a fight. Harp House and Moonraker Cottage both conceal a wealth of secrets, and finding the truth could offer the whole island a better future. Ventriloquist Annie, with her cozy puppets and emerging fierceness, might save everyone—especially Theo, whose past has convinced him he’s a villain but who is really a hero at heart. Romance star Phillips takes a new and intriguing direction that reads like an homage to the classic gothic novel yet maintains her typical pitch-perfect characters and compelling, complex plot.

Heart-wrenching and uplifting, with witty dialogue, emotional depth, and details that give substance and texture to an already entertaining, engrossing story. (Author tour to Charlotte, Chicago, Houston and Seattle)

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IT’S IN HIS KISS

MY BEAUTIFUL ENEMY

Shalvis, Jill Grand Central Publishing (368 pp.) $8.00 paper | Aug. 26, 2014 978-1-455-52952-0 Series: Lucky Harbor

Thomas, Sherry Berkley Sensation (304 pp.) $7.99 paper | Aug. 5, 2014 978-0-425-26889-6

Becca Thorpe comes to Lucky Harbor to distance herself from messy family issues and runs smack dab into Sam the Sexy Surfer, whose board and broad shoulders hide an intense personality and a heavily armored heart.

From the moment she dips her toes in the Pacific Ocean and tastes Lucky Harbor’s ranch-flavored popcorn, Becca is enchanted by the sweet small town; meeting the gorgeous surfer on the beach is icing on the cake, as is discovering that her rental apartment is right next door to the warehouse where he and his partners run their charter-boat tour business. Sam and Becca run into each other everywhere, and neither can ignore their sizzling chemistry, which becomes a problem once they’ve acted on it and then realize Becca wants to fill the open admin position in Sam’s company. She convinces the partners to hire her, then goes about reinventing herself while highlighting the tour company’s positive impact on the community. It seems everyone’s in love with Becca, which both inspires and intimidates Sam, who has his own family issues to work through and is generally suspicious of emotional entanglements. When Becca’s family tracks her down, Sam is her staunchest supporter, forcing them to own up to their failings toward her and creating opportunities for new beginnings. However, helping Becca navigate her family’s shortcomings makes them both more aware of Sam’s, and suddenly, their undefined, open-ended relationship is under pressure. The novel is a typical warm, funny Lucky Harbor combination, with a sexy couple who must deal with individual issues before they can truly find happiness with the other. The final conflict seems a little magnified but only slightly detracts from an overall satisfying romantic arc.

Another successful light, sexy contemporary romance from Shalvis, with storytelling that mixes humor and emotion.

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This historical romance doubles as an adventure story about two travelers in China who fall in love, only to discover that they’re on opposite sides in a political chess game.

Thomas (The Luckiest Lady in London, 2013, etc.) returns with sword-wielding heroine Catherine Blade. After a humdrum start, the novel evolves into an engrossing and unpredictable tale of political intrigue and betrayal. The action alternates between Chinese Turkestan (the current-day Xinjiang region of China) in the 1880s and London in the 1890s. Catherine is the child of a Chinese courtesan and an Englishman. While gathering intelligence for her Chinese politician stepfather in 1883, she meets and falls in love with a man she thinks of only as “the Persian.”

When their paths cross in London 8 years later, Catherine discovers that he’s not Persian at all, but a landed British gentleman named Capt. Leighton Atwood. Although he still makes her heart beat faster, he’s engaged to another woman. Catherine pretends she’s merely a gently bred lady returning to her father’s homeland, but once again, she’s on a dangerous mission for her stepfather that she can fulfill only with Leighton’s help— in spite of his allegiances to his fiancee and to the British crown.

The book’s biggest weakness is the villain, Lin, a cartoonish and unconvincing opponent. Its strength is the complexity of its main characters. Catherine is graceful and feminine but also deadly with a blade or her bare hands. “We would never question your manliness, would we?” Leighton teases her. Leighton is a natural caregiver, equally comfortable cooking for Catherine and saving her from bandits.

A thought-provoking exploration of gender roles in the East and West and in the historical romance genre. It’s also a darn good read.

nonfiction SUCH TROOPS AS THESE The Genius and Leadership of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson

These titles earned the Kirkus Star: DR. MÜTTER’S MARVELS by Christine O’Keefe Aptowicz.............. 42

Alexander, Bevin Berkley (336 pp.) $26.95 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-0-425-27129-2

ON IMMUNITY by Eula Biss................................................................45 AN EMPIRE ON THE EDGE by Nick Bunker..................................... 46 THE NIXON DEFENSE by John W. Dean............................................50

A highly partisan review of the career of an outstanding Confederate commander.

Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson (18241863) was undoubtedly a gifted military tactician, but he commanded Confederate troops, in a subordinate position, for only a little less than two years. Based on this record, Alexander (MacArthur’s War: The Flawed Genius Who Challenged the American Political System, 2013, etc.) proclaims him not just “by far the greatest general every produced by the American people,” but also “one of the supreme military geniuses in world history.”

The author ably describes Jackson’s leadership in battles from First Manassas to Chancellorsville. He contends that Jackson had recognized that new military technologies compelled changes in infantry tactics and had formulated a new theory of battle that could have won the war by crushing federal armies with minimal loss of Southern troops, a theory he repeatedly but unsuccessfully pressed on an unresponsive high command.

Alexander has nothing good to write about anyone but Jackson. Jefferson Davis was “a decidedly third-rate leader,” James Longstreet was “a very slow learner,” and Robert E. Lee was “incapable of absorbing the most basic rules of warfare.” Indeed, Alexander suggests that Lee only retained his position as an army commander, rightfully Jackson’s, because he was a member of the Southern aristocracy. The author offers his acerbic critiques with the full benefit of hindsight and of information unavailable to commanders at the time, and he displays little understanding of the political constraints binding the Confederate leadership. Finally, Alexander’s summary of the outbreak of the war, which glaringly avoids any mention of the attack on Fort Sumter, raises the question of whether he has omitted from his narrative any inconvenient facts that might dim Jackson’s overpowering glow.

Alexander’s over-the-top advocacy of Jackson’s prowess and sour attacks on everyone else detract from an otherwise thoughtful analysis of the general’s tactical insights.

INFORMATION DOESN’T WANT TO BE FREE

by Cory Doctorow................................................................................. 51 EMBATTLED REBEL by James M. McPherson................................... 64 AN INDOMITABLE BEAST by Alan Rabinowitz...............................67 A DEADLY WANDERING by Matt Richtel........................................ 68

THE NIXON DEFENSE What He Knew and When He Knew It

Dean, John W. Viking (784 pp.) $35.00 Jul. 29, 2014 978-0-670-02536-7

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the other side of the world cup NOT FADE AWAY A Memoir of Senses Lost and Found

For soccer fans around the world, myself included, the World Cup represents the pinnacle of the most popular sport in the world and the culmination of four years of preparation. However, as the event generates news and excitement from Brazil (and not just due to the remarkable level of play so far—see Luis Suarez and his infamous incisors), protesters continue to pack the streets of Rio de Janeiro and elsewhere, rallying against a government that has spent billions on preparations while doing little to improve infrastructure around the country or alleviate poverty in the favelas.

Dave Zirin, long known for his hard-hitting sports journalism (Game Over, What’s My Name, Fool?, etc.), takes the situation head-on in his new book, Brazil’s Dance with the Devil, a searing indictment of the country that will also host the 2016 Olympics. As Kirkus noted in our review, the author “ruthlessly tears apart the rationale of a country like Brazil, which aspires to the top tier of world powers but has entrenched problems…hosting a World Cup and Olympics that will not only fail to alleviate, but will exacerbate the country’s problems.”

Zirin’s book is a must-read for fans of the game as well as for those concerned with the nearly limitless influence that money has exerted on soccer and other global sports. For readers interested more in the game itself and its importance throughout the world, check out George Vecsey’s Eight World Cups, Michael Agovino’s Soccer Diaries, Pelé’s Why Soccer Matters or the all-time soccer classic, Eduardo Galeano’s Soccer in Sun and Shadow.

Alexander, Rebecca with Alper, Sascha Gotham Books (256 pp.) $27.00 | Sep. 15, 2014 978-1-59240-831-3 One woman’s story of gradually losing her sight and hearing.

From the age of 12, Alexander knew her life was going to change. Born with two recessive genes that cause type-III Usher syndrome, the author was told she would experience the gradual loss of her hearing and sight until she would be completely blind and deaf.

With honesty and compassion, she details the slow, steady progression of her disease even as she tried to hide her disabilities from her friends, boyfriends and co-workers. Realizing that her world was narrowing, Alexander excelled in school, played soccer and delivered meals to HIV/AIDs patients. However, she continued to deny she had any physical ailments. Then, just after high school graduation, calamity struck. Drunk and nearly blind in the dark, Alexander stumbled off her balcony, landing 27 feet below on a stone patio; she broke every limb in her body except her right foot and leg. Multiple surgeries and months of physical therapy forced Alexander to make conscious decisions about her future. After attending the University of Michigan, she moved to New York City and attended Columbia, double majoring in social work and public health. She became a spin instructor, fell in and out of love, and continued to assess the pros and cons of her disabilities. She could shut out the neverending sounds of the city by removing her hearing aids, but then she could no longer hear a person whisper in her ear. She couldn’t really see the stars, but she loved the feel of a person signing into her hands in the dark. As she steadily accepted her fate, Alexander emphasized the importance of embracing the here and now, of being present and grateful for the gift of life, in whatever shape it might take.

An honest and eloquent look at life from someone who has lost two of her senses.

AGAINST FOOTBALL One Fan’s Reluctant Manifesto

Almond, Steve Melville House (192 pp.) $22.95 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-61219-415-8

A provocative, thoughtful examination of an “astonishingly brutal” sport.

Almond’s (God Bless America: Stories, 2011, etc.) lifelong devotion to football has never wavered, but he calls for its overhaul because he can no longer in good conscience ignore the cumulative and catastrophic results of repetitive injuries to players’ bodies or the prevalence of cognitive

—Eric Liebetrau Eric Liebetrau is the nonfiction and managing editor at Kirkus Reviews.

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brain damage among NFL retirees. The author is not a scold or curmudgeon; he honors the sport and writes expressively that football is “a faithful reenactment of our fundamental athletic impulses…to run, leap [and] catch.” Football is astoundingly popular—“Americans now give football more attention than any other cultural endeavor”—and Almond quotes critic William Phillips regarding its popularity, much of which is “due to the fact that it makes respectable the most primitive feelings about violence, patriotism, manhood.” Almond shares comical recollections of football’s role in his life and anecdotes of how fandom brings people (particularly parents and children) together. Two of his proposed remedies to the current merciless state of football are a mandatory parental discretion warning before games and the revoking of the NFL’s nonprofit status, which soaks taxpayers for as much as 70 percent of the costs of new arenas while the multimillionaire (and some billionaire) team owners often pay little. The author posits that fans are ethically obligated to push for change because “We’re consumers.

Our money and attention are what subsidize the game,” and he presents a compelling argument that Americans’ “allegiance to football legitimizes and even fosters within us a tolerance for violence, greed, racism, and homophobia.” Almond rightfully anticipates significant push back for this book, which raises difficult, uncomfortable questions about fandom—e.g., “What does it mean that millions of white fans cheer wildly for African-American men in the context of a football game when, if they encountered these same men on a darkened street, they would reach for a cellphone?”

Comic, compassionate and thought-provoking.

most interesting sections in the book is her description of how she uses social media. Amoruso has a spiritual side, as well, and she describes her belief in “chaos magic” and “sigils,” a kind of wishful-thinking exercise involving abstract words. The book also includes sidebars featuring guest “girlbosses” (bloggers, Internet entrepreneurs) who share equally clichéd suggestions for business success. Some of the guidance Amoruso offers for interviews (don’t dress like you’re going to a nightclub), getting fired (don’t call anyone names) and finding your fashion style (be careful which trends you follow) will be helpful to her readers, including the sage advice, “You’re not special.”

Career and business advice for the hashtag generation.

For all its self-absorption, this book doesn’t offer much reflection or insight.

#GIRLBOSS

Amoruso, Sophia Portfolio (256 pp.) $26.95 | May 6, 2014 978-0-399-16927-4 A Dumpster diver–turned-CEO details her rise to success and her business philosophy.

In this memoir/business book, Amoruso, CEO of the Internet clothing store Nasty Gal, offers advice to young women entrepreneurs who seek an alternative path to fame and fortune. Beginning with a lengthy discussion of her suburban childhood and rebellious teen years, the author describes her experiences living hand to mouth, hitchhiking, shoplifting and dropping out of school. Her life turned around when, bored at work one night, she decided to sell a few pieces of vintage clothing on eBay. Fast-forward seven years, and Amoruso was running a $100 million company with 350 employees. While her success is admirable, most of her advice is based on her own limited experiences and includes such hackneyed lines as, “When you accept yourself, it’s surprising how much other people will accept you, too.” At more than 200 pages, the book is overlong, and much of what the author discusses could be summarized in a few tweets. In fact, much of it probably has been: One of the |

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THE HILLS OF CHIANTI The Story of a Tuscan Winemaking Family, in Seven Bottles

DR. MÜTTER’S MARVELS A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine

Antinori, Piero Translated by Danford, Natalie Rizzoli Ex Libris (240 pp.) $26.95 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-0-8478-4388-6

Aptowicz, Christine O’Keefe Gotham Books (384 pp.) $27.50 | Sep. 8, 2014 978-1-59240-870-2

Biography of a flamboyant surgeon who helped transform American medicine.

A leading figure at Philadelphia’s Jefferson Medical College in the early 19th century, Dr. Thomas Dent Mütter (1811-1859) won acclaim for his remarkable reconstructive surgeries on deformed patients (with bad burns, cleft palates, mangled faces, etc.) whom most people dismissed as monsters. His hands were “a confident blur of motion” as he worked to alleviate the suffering of patients, writes poet Aptowicz (The Year of No Mistakes, 2013, etc.), whose earlier screenplay on Mütter won many awards. “Where others once saw a monster, Mütter thought, he had revealed the man.” In her deftly crafted narrative, the author provides an absorbing account of the charismatic surgeon’s life and career as well as a vivid look at the medical practices and prejudices of his time. His students adored him, and the disfigured flocked to him. European contemporaries saw him as a “dashing, outspoken, idiosyncratic American visionary.” In an era when many physicians were callous, medical rivals often balked at the kindly Mütter’s successful introduction of such innovations as recovery rooms, clean surgical areas and the use of ether anesthesia in surgery. After treating a man who suffered from elephantiasis, the surgeon took up a collection for him. Aptowicz draws nicely on Mütter’s speeches and lectures to reveal the depth of his empathetic philosophies and humanist approach. In his teaching, he made extensive use of an unusual collection of some 2,000 anatomical specimens— diseased bones, skeletons, deformed organs preserved in jars— as well as paintings, drawings and instruments. These “marvels” formed the core of Philadelphia’s popular Mütter Museum, which opened in 1858.

Mütter’s healing work inspired former students, from the celebrated Civil War surgeon Jonathan Letterman to the pharmaceutical manufacturer E.R. Squibb. His life story will move many readers.

The Antinori family has been producing wine in Tuscany since 1385. Gracefully capitalizing on his family’s story, winemaker Antinori chronicles the unique business and personal relationships of this remarkable family enterprise.

The author uses seven wines as the foundation for his narrative, pairing each with a topic related to the family business.

Beginning with a Franciacorta Brut rosé, Antinori explains how this wine represents his three daughters and their role in creating the future and “modern international soul of Marchesi Antinori.” The author explores becoming a winemaker (Villa Antinori); growing a company style (Solaia); reinventing wine (Tignanello); the regions of Umbria and Tuscany (Cervaro Della Sala); making wines in the world (Antica Napa Valley); and opening a winery (Mezzo Braccio Monteloro). Throughout the book, Antinori stresses that family relationships are the basis of the company’s enduring success and style. “The legacy and continuity that we are selling,” he writes, “my signature on the label, our roots: these things mean that even when times are tough, I wouldn’t dream of letting the company out of our control.” The author began exploring California and its wines in 1966 when he visited Napa, and his company’s first California wine, a cabernet sauvignon, was harvested in 2004. Today, the company “owns 1,742 hectares planted with vineyards in Italy, and 2,358 hectares around the world,” including Kyrgyzstan. The author’s impressive business success and personal life, combined with the compelling world of wine production, provides plenty of delectable fodder for readers. Whether Antinori is explaining the wine crisis of the 1960s or defining the Tuscan way of doing things or how his family roots infused him with a love of travel, the result is a pleasure. Oenophiles and those just curious for a bit more information will appreciate the technical notes about each of the seven bottles.

A delightful celebration of an extraordinary Italian family’s enduring love affair with wine.

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ALONE IN ANTARCTICA The First Woman to Ski Solo Across the Southern Ice

that threatened to eat her tent; camouflaged, bottomless crevasses; equipment snafus; chilblains on the verge of sepsis; leaving her tent with the stove on: “it would take mere seconds for my tent and everything inside it to be consumed. I would be left alone, without shelter and without clothing in an Antarctic whiteout.” It is obvious from the narrative that the author both craves and fears solitude; it’s what takes her to the edge, a dark and creepy place of choking panic that occasionally touches on a madness that comes seemingly out of nowhere: “I was in a euphoric mood at the end of that first day but as soon as I crawled into the glaucous world of my small tent the nauseating sense of fear and trembling dread of the silence came flooding back.” Throughout her grueling adventure, she had her eyes and her notebook open, musing philosophically and recording the otherworldly beauty: the sun’s cinnamon glow at midwinter, water as black as licorice, an evening’s perfect metallic black and white.

A quick-reading account of a spectacular and appalling journey.

Aston, Felicity Counterpoint (320 pp.) $26.00 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-61902-347-5

Chronicle of an adventurer’s attempts at a solo, transcontinental Antarctic ski journey.

Aston (Call of the White: Taking the World to the South Pole, 2011) is an Antarctic enthusiast, to put it mildly, and she has spent lots of time in its frigid climes.

Eventually, the author decided to ski to the pole and past to the other shoreline, hundreds of miles away. Years before, two Norwegian men had successfully attempted the feat, but Aston would be the first woman to ski across without the aid of sails.

The author tells her story with great urgency, duly noting the many challenges she faced: bone-cracking cold; raging winds

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“A new look at a scandal that changed American politics.” from all the truth is out

ALL THE TRUTH IS OUT The Fall of Gary Hart and the Rise of Tabloid Politics

SOAR How Boys Learn, Succeed, and Develop Character the Eagle Way

Bai, Matt Knopf (288 pp.) $26.95 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-0-307-27338-3

Banks, David with Lichtenberg, G.F. 37 Ink/Atria (256 pp.) $26.99 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-4767-6095-7

A new look at a scandal that changed American politics.

In 2002, former New York Times Magazine chief political correspondent Bai (The Argument: Billionaires, Bloggers, and the Battle to Remake Democratic Politics, 2007) wrote an article about Gary Hart’s 1987 presidential bid, a campaign that ended with the media’s splashy coverage of Hart’s apparent adultery. The author arrived “at the same psychoanalytical conclusion on which a lot of Hart’s contemporaries had settled back then—that Hart had to have harbored some self-destructive impulse to begin with,” risking his reputation by getting involved with “some model.” Now, more than a decade later, Bai takes a far different view of the episode: “It was the story that changed all the rules” for journalists covering politicians; “the moment when the worlds of public service and tabloid entertainment…finally collided.” The author argues that the Watergate scandal “left the entire country feeling duped and betrayed”; political reporters wondered how Nixon, “a man whose corruption and pettiness were so self-evident,” could have won two presidential elections. Suspicion came to focus on candidate Hart because of his widely known womanizing and his aloof and detached manner. For this book, Bai interviewed Hart, as well as reporters and editors involved in publicizing the alleged affair. The Washington Post reporter who aggressively pursued the story told Bai that he had felt “relieved, then triumphant” when Hart withdrew from the presidential race. The way he saw it, writes the author, “he and his colleagues had managed to protect the nation from another rogue and liar.”

As Bai sees it, however, the nation lost “one of the great political minds of his time.” Hart’s attempt at another run failed, and until recently, he was marginalized from politics.

Hart once said that obsessive scrutiny of sex as an indicator of character would give America the politicians it deserved. In this probing narrative, Bai comes to another dismal conclusion: It would give America the news coverage it deserved—entertainment-driven, dominated by shallow pundits, and bereft of intellect and ideas. (First printing of 75,000)

How and why one man helped start an all-boys public school in New York City.

Concerned with the number of young men in New York who seemed destined to wind up in prison due to their race and socioeconomic status, Banks decided to try to change the pattern. Along with a group of men called the One Hundred Black Men, they founded the Eagle Academy for Young Men, a public school catering to just boys. From its rough beginnings to its successful current state, Banks, with co-author Lichtenberg (coauthor: Know What Makes Them Tick: How to Successfully Negotiate Almost Any Situation, 2010, etc.), gives readers an in-depth look at the methods he used to help at-risk boys become productive, successful members of society. “The Eagle Method is not specific to race or socioeconomic status,” writes Banks. “It is a philosophy and a set of practical strategies that can be adapted to embrace and support young men of any background to achieve their promise and potential.” School days are longer than the average, with boys attending classes until 5:00 p.m., plus weekend activities. By dismissing students along with the teachers, rather than their peers, who might influence Eagle students into trying alcohol, drugs and other risky behaviors, Eagle students are kept occupied and safe from attitudes that contradict the academy’s model. Students are grouped into houses, similar to those in Harry Potter’s world, and they eat together and participate in extracurricular activities together, building a sense of community. Ultimately, the instructors seek to assess the needs of each individual boy and fill in the missing gaps that might prevent a student from achieving his full potential. After 30 years and hundreds of success stories, many of which are included, Banks’ method works.

A must-read for those concerned with the welfare of young men.

MASTERFUL MARKS Cartoonists Who Changed the World

Beauchamp, Monte Simon & Schuster (128 pp.) $24.99 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-4516-4919-2

Graphic biographies of 16 of the most influential cartoonists by some of the great cartoonists they influenced.

It’s difficult to argue with the concept: Commission some of the finest contemporary graphic artists to pay homage to their heroes, the ones who inspired them to pursue their vocation. Editor Beauchamp (Krampus: The Devil of Christmas, 2010, 44

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etc.) has done a fine job in selecting subjects and matching them with acolytes (as well as collaborating as writer on a few of the bios). The pinnacle is Drew Friedman’s deeply personal appreciation of R. Crumb, in which he not only celebrates Crumb’s style, but demonstrates his influence. Other stylistic highlights include Mark Alan Stamaty’s visceral rendering of the legacy of Jack Kirby (“Captain America”), Owen Smith’s sepia-tone commemoration of Lynd Kendall Ward (“Father of the Graphic Novel”) and Sergio Ruzzier’s depiction of Charles M. “Sparky” Schulz as Charlie Brown. There are also revelations: Dr. Suess took his mother’s maiden name as his pen name, and the correct pronunciation—or the way her family pronounced it—was “ ‘Soice’ as in ‘Voice,’ but it quickly became ‘Soose’ as in ‘Goose.’ ” Harvey Kurtzman’s role as creator of Mad is just part of what he achieved before and after, when his editorial assistants included Gloria Steinem, R. Crumb and Monty Python’s Terry Gilliam. A major void is the lack of female cartoonists as subjects (and only two as contributors), and even within the stable of white male cartoonists, there are top artists who are glaringly absent. While it’s hard to argue about the cultural significance of either Walt Disney or Hugh Hefner, both of whom have contributed greatly to the profession, at least the latter would have never made the cut on his drawings alone. Common themes include broken marriages and artists not given their due, especially financially.

There’s always a hit-or-miss quality to such projects, and some question over the selections, but what’s great here is really terrific.

notion of the innocent and the pure being violated by vaccinations, that “people without good living standards need vaccines, whereas vaccines would only clog up the more refined systems of middle-class and upper-class people.” Biss also administers a thoughtful, withering critique to more recent fears of vaccines—the toxins they carry, from mercury to formaldehyde, and accusations of their role in causing autism. The author keeps the debate lively and surprising, touching on Rachel Carson here and “Dr. Bob” there. She also includes her father’s wise counsel, which accommodates the many sides of the topic but arrives at a clear point of view: Vaccinate.

Brightly informative, giving readers a sturdy platform from which to conduct their own research and take personal responsibility. (This review first appeared in the BEA/ALA special issue.)

FIRE SHUT UP IN MY BONES A Memoir

Blow, Charles M. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (240 pp.) $27.00 | Sep. 23, 2014 978-0-544-22804-7

New York Times columnist Blow’s hardscrabble memoir about growing up poor and black in rural Louisiana.

It’s safe to say that debut memoirist Blow made his bones as a newspaper journalist in quite a different fashion than most of his peers at the stately Grey Lady. Brought up in dirt-poor Gibsland, Louisiana, he worked his way from being an intern at the tiny Shreveport Times to eventually, by age 25, a graphics editor at the New York Times and a columnist soon thereafter. But this memoir isn’t about his professional development as much as the psychosexual and emotional roller-coaster ride of his upbringing.

Especially in the first half, Blow masterfully evokes the sights, sounds and smells of rough-and-tumble, backwater Louisiana.

His portrait of his tough-as-nails mother—who raised five children on the wages from her poultry-plucking job and, at one point, shot her husband for cheating—is almost larger than life. But eventually we get to the crux of the memoir and the event in his young life that would understandably have serious psychological repercussions for years to come: being sexually molested by his cousin. When Blow moves on to his more conventional university life at Grambling State, a historically black college in his home state, readers begin to lose a sense of what made the memoir so original and compelling up to that point.

The author still found himself in a struggle for both personal and sexual identity in college, but his experiences with hazing as a confused fraternity pledge, as trying and traumatic as they certainly were, don’t seem that far removed from the comingof-age experiences of millions of other working-class university students.

A well-written, often poetic memoir that nevertheless fails to fully live up to its initial promise (This review first appeared in the BEA/ALA special issue.)

ON IMMUNITY An Inoculation

Biss, Eula Graywolf (192 pp.) $24.00 | Sep. 30, 2014 978-1-55597-689-7

National Book Critics Circle Award winner Biss (Notes from No Man’s Land, 2009) investigates the nature of vaccinations, from immunity as myth to the intricate web of the immune system.

The fears surrounding vaccines are not late-breaking news, as the author notes in this literate, rangy foray into the history and consequences of vaccination. In the 18th century—and frankly, little less today—it was understandable to associate vaccination with the work of witches: “The idea…that pus from a sick cow can be scraped into a wound on a person and make that person immune to a deadly disease is almost as hard to believe now as it was in 1796.” Indeed, the idea of poking yourself with a dose of virulent organisms to save yourself from them is not an intuitive leap. Biss ably tracks the progress of immunization: as metaphor—the protective impulse to make our children invulnerable (Achilles, Oedipus); as theory and science (the author provides a superb explanation of herd immunity: “when enough people are vaccinated with even a relatively ineffective vaccine, viruses have trouble moving from host to host and cease to spread”); as a cash cow for big pharma; and as a class issue—the |

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“A scholarly yet page-turning, superbly written history.” from an empire on the edge

COLD SWEAT My Father James Brown and Me

England never had a solid plan for administering the American colonies, situated on a continent they couldn’t understand and could never hope to rule. Their existence was purely economic, a market for English goods and an exclusive supplier of tobacco, rice, timber, fur, rum, sugar and other important exports. Those who governed for England sent few, if any, reports, and those were incomplete and/or about the coming trouble. Thomas Gage, the commander in chief of the British Army in America, was responsible for territory from Nova Scotia to the Bahamas, in addition to the western bases, from Quebec to Alabama, that Britain gained after the Seven Years’ War. On the other hand, King George III’s influence was limited. Things might have carried on as usual except for the 1772 banking crash and resulting recession. Speculation, greed, extortion and fraud brought the East India Company to its knees, deep in debt with a mountain of tea losing value to a worldwide smuggling trade. The author lists countless mistakes, misunderstandings and plain stupidity, all of which led to revolution. The ultimate cause of the revolt was Britain’s staunch belief in the twin pillars of the British constitution: parliamentary sovereignty and the rule of law in a government built on land ownership. Colonists had no rights, and only landowners could attend town meetings.

Questions of taxation, religious freedom and the bailout of the East India Company were really just flash points, and the failure of British leadership to recognize the warning signs will astonish readers who thought the Revolution was just about tea.

A scholarly yet page-turning, superbly written history.

(35 illustrations)

Brown, Yamma with Fisher, Robin Gaby Chicago Review (208 pp.) $24.95 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-883052-85-0

James Brown’s daughter recounts her conflicted relationship with the “Godfather of Soul.”

Writing with Fisher (Narrative Journalism/Rutgers Univ.; After the Fire: A True Story of Friendship and Survival, 2008, etc.), Yamma Brown recalls what it was like to grow up in the shadow of one of the most famous and influential entertainers of all time, James Brown (1933-2006). The author begins at the end by recounting her father’s death and subsequent funeral in 2006, which was held at Harlem’s Apollo Theater with the sort of ostentation and pomp that one would expect from James Brown, even in death. From there, she begins to reconstruct an ambivalent portrait of her father’s life, from his time as a youngster shining shoes in small-town Georgia to his eventual position of power in the entertainment industry and all the trappings of fame and celebrity. But in a somewhat jarring transition, the book goes from rosy recollections of riding ponies on the family ranch to the chapter ominously entitled “Dad’s Beating Mom Again.” Suddenly, the memoir takes a seriously dark turn and never looks back. The young author went about the traumatic business of trying to come to terms with domestic violence from a tender age, watching her father physically abuse two unfortunate wives. But even more depressing is the author’s own near-fatal dealings with physical abuse from her own husband, coming about almost as if it were an inherited trait from her battered mother. In fact, the author’s story of life with her conniving, violent, near-psychopath of a husband begins to overtake the story of her relationship with her father. Unfortunately, it took a near-fatal beating from her lowlife husband before she finally scraped up the courage to leave victimhood behind.

A courageous and often unsettling look at the not-soglamorous consequences of being the offspring of a major celebrity. (25 b/w photos)

SUSTAINABILITY A History

Caradonna, Jeremy L. Oxford Univ. (336 pp.) $27.95 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-0-19-937240-9

Caradonna (History/Univ. of Alberta; The Enlightenment in Practice: Academic Prize Contests and Intellectual Culture in France, 1670-1794, 2012) contends that our civilization is at a crossroads: Either we will maintain a business-as-usual approach and face inevitable collapse or adopt the path of sustainability.

For the author, sustainability is a broader concept than just conservation. With social justice and human rights as its “social dimension,” it covers “a broad range of domains: urbanism, agriculture and ecological design, forestry, fisheries, economics, trade, population, housing and architecture, transportation, business, education, social justice, and so on.” Caradonna claims that environmental issues should not be treated separately from political or economic issues. The environmental movement of the 1960s and ’70s was indeed “a transformation of the conceptual prism through which to view the world and humanity’s place in it.” Books such as Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962) eliminated the idea of the artificial boundary between man and nature, recognizing both as part of the same ecosystem. Equally

AN EMPIRE ON THE EDGE How Britain Came to Fight America

Bunker, Nick Knopf (416 pp.) $30.00 | Sep. 16, 2014 978-0-307-59484-6

Bunker (Making Haste from Babylon: The Mayflower Pilgrims and Their World: A New History, 2010) delivers an eye-opening study of the British view of the American Revolution and why they were crazy to fight it.

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HOW WE LEARN The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why It Happens

important, however, was its frequently overlooked counterpart: “the birth of ‘ecological economics.’ ” Amory Lovins and other authors posed such questions as, “What is the point of endless economic growth?” and “How can nature, society, and the economy be studied as a single system?” In 1968, Aurelio Peccei’s The Limits to Growth (1968) became a best-seller. These and other economists challenged the contention that the growth of unregulated markets was the only road to a prosperous society.

Caradonna believes that there has been an important shift in ecological thinking since the 1980s. “Sustainability, in fact, has gone from marginal ecological idea to mainstream movement in a surprisingly short amount of time,” he writes. Now the issue is to define a path to sustainable development to replace globalism and the “reigning venture-capital approach.”

A provocative treatment of an important subject. (6 b/w halftones)

Carey, Benedict Random House (272 pp.) $27.00 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-0-8129-9388-2

Carey (Poison Most Vial: A Mystery, 2012, etc.) chose to write scientific mysteries for kids as a distraction from his day job as a science reporter for the New York Times, until it dawned on him that he had an amazing story to share: Ostensibly poor study habits can be important to improving learning strategies.

Recent experiments in cognition offer startling insights into how the brain works, contradicting traditional beliefs about the merits of concentration and self-discipline. “Distractions can aid learning,” writes the author. “Napping does, too. Quitting before a project is done: not bad, as an almost done project

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“A searching portrait of an arrogant, heroic and willful man—a mix of Jean Genet, Don Quixote and King Lear.” from limonov

lingers in memory far longer than one that is completed.” Taking a break and texting or checking emails when faced with a knotty math problem may actually facilitate a solution. New research indicates that memory is a two-stage process: In addition to storage, there is retrieval, which is an associative process.

What we remember from one moment to the next may not be identical; images are embedded “in networks of perceptions, facts and thoughts, slightly different combinations of which bubble up each time.” Carey describes experiments that demonstrate the remarkable fact that if subjects are shown a series of pictures or lines of poetry that they are asked to memorize, their recall will improve over several days without further practice. In the case of a meaningless array of syllables or numbers, however, this is not the case. “Forgetting is not only a passive process of decay but also an active one, of filtering,” and the brain treats nonsense syllables as dispensable clutter. Forgetting is part of the mental process of fixing a memory. If we are motivated to solve a difficult problem, our brains will take advantage of a break to continue working “offline” while we turn our attention elsewhere.

A fascinating perspective on how we can benefit from the distractions of daily life.

dominant and less dependent role in how computer technology is being implemented in society and not be mindlessly carried along by a blind faith in technological advancement—a task probably much easier said than done.

An important if occasionally overbearing study of how machines are making us less human and what we can do about it. (This review first appeared in the BEA/ALA special issue.)

LIMONOV The Outrageous Adventures of the Radical Soviet Poet Who Became a Bum in New York, a Sensation in France, and a Political Antihero in Russia Carrère, Emmanuel Translated by Lambert, John Farrar, Straus and Giroux (336 pp.) $28.00 | Oct. 21, 2014 978-0-374-19201-3

The life of a controversial Russian writer and adventurer.

Journalist, novelist, screenwriter and director Carrère (My Life as a Russian Novel, 2010, etc.) was amazed when he heard some of Russia’s liberal intellectuals warmly praise Edward Limonov (b. 1943), infamous for his right-wing views and incendiary fascist remarks. That paradox inspired the investigation that resulted in this book, winner of the Prix Renaudot when it was published in France in 2011. Combining biography, political history and memoir, Carrère places Limonov’s “romantic, dangerous life” in the context of what he calls his own “bourgeois bohemian” experiences. Limonov, “a Russian Jack London,” has been wildly impetuous: A rebel, thug and poet, he left his native Ukraine when he was 24; moved to Moscow, where he eked out a living sewing pants; married a beautiful model with whom, in 1974, he immigrated to New York, imagining a “radiant future” as a writer. Despondent after his wife left him, he became a homeless tramp; then, in a sharp twist of fate, he got a job as butler to a multimillionaire, through whom he met a literary agent who placed his first book—autobiographical fiction—with a French publisher. Paris was next, where the literati treated him like “a bit of a star.” But he was restless. Learning of conflict in the Balkans, he decided to fight with the Serbs.

When Carrère interviewed him in Moscow in 2007, he was leading a “national assembly of opposition forces.” Limonov has been opposed to political leaders (most recently, “cold and cunning” Putin), to the adulation bestowed upon such writers as Joseph Brodsky, Pasternak and Yevtushenko, and to glasnost, which led his countrymen to believe that they had been duped by “a gang of criminals.” Limonov prefers his Russia “powerful and morose.”

A searching portrait of an arrogant, heroic and willful man—a mix of Jean Genet, Don Quixote and King Lear.

THE GLASS CAGE Automation and Us Carr, Nicholas Norton (288 pp.) $26.95 | Sep. 29, 2014 978-0-393-24076-4

Serious technophobic exploration of the dangers of machines superseding the role of humans in the workforce.

Technology journalist and Pulitzer Prize finalist Carr (The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, 2010, etc.), the former executive editor of the Harvard Business Review, is on a selfless mission to warn humanity about the dangers of robots and computers making human beings obsolete in the world of work. Although the book is certainly more than a Luddite tirade about the increasing subservience of humans to the machines they manufacture, the author’s arguments can sometimes venture into paranoiac territory, seemingly more for shock value than anything else. But his core argument—that man’s own mental faculties, natural instincts and vital creativity are being dulled by dependence on machines—is well-argued, and he cites more than a few compelling instances in which this technological dependency has proved fatal—e.g., pilots overly accustomed to flying on computerized autopilot who, when forced to act manually, freeze up and make costly mistakes in otherwise routine situations. Carr also takes a critical look at the potential problems and contradictions inherent in new technology, such as Google Glass, designed to allow tech geeks to stay connected with cyberspace without becoming alienated from their surroundings while constantly checking text messages and such.

The author proposes that human beings must take a more 48

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THE CASE AGAINST THE SUPREME COURT

SLOW DANCING WITH A STRANGER Lost and Found in the Age of Alzheimer’s

Chemerinsky, Erwin Viking (400 pp.) $30.00 | Sep. 25, 2014 978-0-670-02642-5

Comer, Meryl HarperOne (256 pp.) $26.99 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-0-06-213082-2

The dean of the School of Law at the University of California, Irvine, places our most revered governmental institution on trial and finds it deeply flawed.

If, as Chemerinsky (The Conservative Assault on the Constitution, 2010, etc.) posits, the Supreme Court’s two most important responsibilities are to protect the rights of minorities and to uphold the Constitution against the impulse of political majorities, it has too often failed. By these terms, he makes a convincing argument. He draws on a number of crucial (and, he insists, wrongly decided) cases from all eras and across many different areas of the law to demonstrate the court’s dereliction. When it comes to race, the court has historically done more harm than good. In times of crisis—during war, in the wake of 9/11, etc.—the court has failed to restrain majorities, has allowed free speech to be trampled, and has permitted the wrongful detention, incarceration and internment of citizens.

Instead of protecting employees and consumers or ensuring a path to recovery for the injured, the court has favored protecting property, freedom of contract and states’ rights. Nor does the performance of the Warren-led court, far more in keeping with Chemerinsky’s forthrightly acknowledged liberal politics, absolve the court of its many lapses. He reminds us that Warren’s tenure was brief and argues that even in the areas of its greatest successes—voting rights, school desegregation, ensuring counsel for criminal defendants—the court did much less than was necessary. Needless to say, the Roberts-led court comes in for a shellacking. Taking hope from the stirring dissents contained in most of the especially important cases he cites, Chemerinsky rejects recent scholarly calls for the abolition of judicial review and offers instead a number of reforms designed to improve the court and return it to its proper mission.

Though he strives mightily to be fair, Chemerinsky’s analysis remains vulnerable to the charge he most fears: an inevitably biased critique, amounting merely to the complaint that “the Court’s decisions have not been liberal enough.”

Geoffrey Beene Foundation Alzheimer’s Initiative CEO Comer offers an unvarnished account of her experience as her husband’s caretaker after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

The author has testified before Congress, and she is a founding member of USAgainstAlzheimer’s, a co-founder of Women Against Alzheimer’s Network and a recipient of the 2005 Shriver Profiles in Dignity Award and the 2007 Proxmire Award. Comer, who spent more than 30 years in broadcast journalism, shares the painful reality of witnessing her husband’s decline over the past 20 years. Harvey Gralnick was chief of hematology and oncology at the National Institutes of Health, internationally recognized for his work on leukemia. When Comer and Gralnick married in 1978, both of their careers were on an upward trajectory. Twenty years later, at the age of 58, he was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s. His decline was rapid, as he became increasingly forgetful and at times abusive. For several years before, it had become apparent to Comer and her husband’s colleagues that something was wrong, although he denied a problem and refused medical help. Comer chronicles her own confusion and frustration with his behavior. Finally, Gralnick was forced to resign his position, and it became impossible for Comer to maintain her own career while caring for him at home. The author explains why she gives a detailed chronicle of the painful reality of her situation as a caretaker: “I never wanted to embellish or soften the edges around the truth. It does not do justice to the cruelty of the disease.” Comer has become an advocate for the need for early diagnosis and treatment for Alzheimer’s, which is “pushing past cancer and HIV/AIDS as “the most critical public health problem of our times.”

A poignant love story with a powerful message.

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“And as for that missing tape, the one about which so much was made at the Watergate hearings? It would spoil the surprise to tell it here, but Dean has the answers.” from the nixon defense

THE NIXON DEFENSE What He Knew and When He Knew It

situation. He describes his earliest memory of a tantrum, when he experienced “something deeper than anger, a sense of desperation akin to homesickness” after being chastised for a minor infraction. Today, Denevi explains, the latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders lists nine symptoms of ADHD, of which six must be met for a diagnosis. His behavior at age 5 fit all of the symptoms, but this was in 1985, when the condition was still poorly defined. Only after a year during which he was subjected to a number of tests to exclude food allergies or epilepsy was Denevi finally diagnosed with the condition. He was first prescribed Ritalin, but the medication increased his agitation, and he was switched to a mild antidepressant. He was also treated by a child psychologist throughout his childhood and adolescence, and his parents worked closely with his therapist and teachers to help him control his impulsiveness and distractibility. In classrooms where his teachers were sympathetic, his behavior improved, but he was the target of bullies. As he grew into his teens, his attitude became more flamboyant and assertive; this led him to minor delinquency. With strong support from his parents, he managed to excel academically. Now married and a father, Denevi still copes with symptoms of the disorder and takes small doses of Ritalin. In his view, the treatment of ADHD should aim to alleviate “the levels of conflict and stress” so that children can “make it safely into adulthood.”

An evocative and insightful memoir of thriving with ADHD.

Dean, John W. Viking (784 pp.) $35.00 | Jul. 29, 2014 978-0-670-02536-7

About that 18-and-a-half minutes of lost tape….

In this 40th anniversary year of Richard Nixon’s gloomy evacuation of the White House, former staffer and ever since bête noire Dean (Broken Government: How Republican Rule Destroyed the Legislative, Executive and Judicial Branches, 2007, etc.) defends himself against a category of accusation Tricky Dick frequently leveled against him: “I’m not going to fire a guy on the basis of a charge made

by Dean, who basically is trying to save his ass and get immunity, you see.” Well, sure: Dean was and is no dummy, and he saw what was coming in the grim swirl of the Watergate hearings, during which frequently named figures such as Ehrlichman, Haldeman, Hunt, Liddy, Mitchell and Dean himself became household names. By the author’s account, Liddy—never likable but always honorable, in his own way—took the fall for the foiled break-in and offered to have himself shot on any street corner in Washington at the president’s pleasure; the president declined, but he schemed and maneuvered in other directions. Sometimes, Dean notes, Nixon was brilliant in that maneuvering, turning potential losses into double-edged wins, usually Pyrrhic but still damaging to the opposition. This account, drawing on notes, scrawls on legal pads and transcripts of taped conversations, makes an odd but compelling stroll down Memory Lane for those who remember the time. Dean provides deft portraits of the likes of the unctuous Kissinger, the exceedingly odd Al Haig (“he’s a little bit obnoxious and doesn’t wear well with people, which would be good from our point of view”), and Nixon himself. And as for that missing tape, the one about which so much was made at the Watergate hearings? It would spoil the surprise to tell it here, but Dean has the answers.

Essential to anyone’s library of Nixoniana.

THE ART OF SLOW WRITING Reflections on Time, Craft, and Creativity

DeSalvo, Louise St. Martin’s Griffin (320 pp.) $15.99 paper | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-250-05103-5 978-1-4668-5198-6 e-book

Note to aspiring writers: Slow down.

Such is the primary advice from the author of Writing as a Way of Healing (1999) and of assorted memoirs and biographies. DeSalvo (Creative Writing and Literature/Hunter Coll.; On Moving: A Writer’s Meditation on New Houses, Old Haunts, and Finding Home Again, 2009, etc.) structures her book in tiny chapters, some lists of things to do (with bullet points) and myriad examples from the works of writers whose methods mirror those she’s recommending. Not surprisingly, Virginia Woolf appears continually (DeSalvo has published books about her), and there’s a passage about Tobias Wolff, as well. Among the others making numerous appearances are Michael Chabon, Zadie Smith, Ian McEwan, Jeffrey Eugenides, Paul Auster and Joan Didion.

DeSalvo also tells us in many chapters that she is currently at work on a book about her father and World War II, and she recommends highly her own ruminative style, which features multiple revisions. Although she mentions Joyce Carol Oates in a different context (writing about difficult experiences), she

HYPER A Personal History of ADHD Denevi, Timothy Simon & Schuster (304 pp.) $26.00 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-4767-0257-5

Denevi explores “the mountains of material on ADHD from the point of view of a patient.”

The author seeks a middle ground in the debate over whether ADHD is overdiagnosed and/or overmedicated. In his own case, the first symptoms of his problem were frequent meltdowns and impulsive behavior when playing with other children or in a classroom 50

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“Doctorow has spoken and written on these issues many times before but never quite so persuasively. Required reading for creators making their ways through the new world.” from information doesn’t want to be free

Doctorow has spoken and written on these issues many times before but never quite so persuasively.

Required reading for creators making their ways through the new world.

does not consider Oates’ enviable productivity and her mastery of the art of fast writing. Similarly, she mentions Anthony Trollope’s use of a writing diary but neglects to mention that speedy Anthony wrote his nearly 50 novels (and numerous other works—longhand) in only 35 years. DeSalvo does have lots of useful advice, however, much of which reduces to this: If you really want to write, you will make the time and organize yourself in ways that will make possible both your writing life and your “real” one. She offers many tips—some borrowed from others—that will help novices do so. Perhaps the book’s most useful feature is its genial optimism—the you-cando-this tone that beginning (and insecure) writers will find encouraging.

Elementary in many ways but infused with the faith of a true believer.

THE RUSH America’s Fevered Quest for Fortune, 1848-1853 Dolnick, Edward Little, Brown (368 pp.) $28.00 | $14.99 e-book $25.98 Audiobook | Aug. 12, 2014 978-0-316-17568-5 978-0-316-28055-6 e-book 978-1-47895-389-0 Audiobook

INFORMATION DOESN’T WANT TO BE FREE

The miners of the California Gold Rush didn’t need law and order, toothpaste or running water.

They needed a course in money management.

In a bit of nicely rendered irony, Dolnick (The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World, 2011, etc.) closes this spirited account of the Gold Rush with a fiscal reckoning: The average miner earned a whopping $20 per day—no small sum—at the start of the rush in 1848, but only $6 per day toward the end in 1852. What they made went through their fingers like water, but, writes the author, they found treasure of another kind in the freedom they enjoyed: “They had woken every morning in a shabby tent or a crude cabin and dreamed that they would fall asleep that night as rich as Croesus.” The sentiment is a touch purple, given the damage the rush wrought on the landscapes of California and the people who lived among them. Nonetheless, Dolnick does a good job of locating the sentimental core of the rush and placing it in the context of its time—just a few years, he notes, after the word “millionaire” had been coined to describe the “exotic creatures,” no more than a dozen or so, who boasted the greatest wealth the country had ever seen. The mere existence of the word was enough to set dreamers’ hearts to fluttering about becoming one of that dozen in the faraway fields of equally exotic California, a “half-unreal locale like China or Egypt.”

Dolnick draws on the best historiography and writes winningly of the events in question, augmenting but not supplanting the many books that have come before this one.

Readers new to Gold Rush history will find a bonanza here—and for old hands, Dolnick provides enough fresh interpretation to keep the pages turning. (16-page 4-color insert; 7 b/w photos)

Doctorow, Cory McSweeney’s (164 pp.) $25.00 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-940450-28-5

In his best-selling novel Ready Player One, Ernest Cline predicted that decades from now, Doctorow (Homeland, 2013, etc.) should share the presidency of the Internet with actor Wil Wheaton. Consider this manifesto to be Doctorow’s qualifications for the job.

The author provides a guide to the operation of the Internet that not only makes sense, but is also written for general readers.

Using straightforward language and clear analogies, Doctorow breaks down the complex issues and tangled arguments surrounding technology, commerce, copyright, intellectual property, crowd funding, privacy and value—not to mention the tricky situation of becoming “Internet Famous.” Following a characteristically thoughtful introduction by novelist Neil Gaiman, rock star Amanda Palmer offers a blunt summary of today’s world: “We are a new generation of artists, makers, supporters, and consumers who believe that the old system through which we exchanged content and money is dead. Not dying: dead.” So the primary thesis of the book becomes a question of, where do we go from here? Identifying the Web’s constituents as creators, investors, intermediaries and audiences is just the first smart move. Doctorow also files his forthright, tactically savvy arguments under three “laws,” the most important of which has been well-broadcast: “Any time someone puts a lock on something that belongs to you and won’t give you the key, that lock isn’t there for your benefit.” These aren’t the wild-eyed proclamations that arose from the Occupy movement or the hysteria that seems to surround Edward Snowden, whom Doctorow touches on only briefly here.

Instead, the author advocates for a liberalized system of copyright laws that finally admits that the Internet, for all its virtues and diverse purposes, is nothing but one great big copy machine, and it’s not going away. |

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INDISPENSABLE AND OTHER MYTHS Why the CEO Pay Experiment Failed and How to Fix It

SMOKE GETS IN YOUR EYES And Other Lessons from the Crematory Doughty, Caitlin Norton (256 pp.) $24.95 | Sep. 15, 2014 978-0-393-24023-8

Dorff, Michael B. Univ. of California (328 pp.) $34.95 | Aug. 1, 2014 978-0-520-28101-1

A 20-something’s account of her life as a professional mortician.

Doughty’s fascination with death began in childhood, but it wasn’t until she got to college that she dropped all pretenses of “normality and began to explore “all aspects of mortality” through her work in medieval history. Intellectual exposure to death and the human rituals associated with it eventually led to a decision to pursue a career as an undertaker. With an honesty that at times borders on unnerving, Doughty describes her experiences tending to dead people that, through her colorful characterizations, come to life on the page to become more than just anonymous stiffs.

The author offers an intimate view of not just the mechanics of how corpses are treated and disposed, but also of the way Americans have come to treat both death and the dead. Throughout the last century, the rise of hospitals and displacement of homes as centers of life and death sanitized mortality while taking it out of public consciousness. “[T]he dying,” writes Doughty, “could undergo the indignities of death without offending the sensibilities of the living.” In the vein of Jessica Mitford, Doughty also casts a critical eye on the funeral industry and how it has attempted to “prettify” death for the public through cosmetic excesses like embalming. Yet unlike Mitford before her, Doughty reveals that what the public is ultimately getting cheated out of is not money, but a real and wholesome experience with death. For the author, the way forward to a healthier relationship with the end-of-life experience is to reclaim “the process of dying” by ending the ignorance and fear attached to it. Death is not the enemy of life but rather its much-maligned and misunderstood ally.

A witty, wise and mordantly wise-cracking memoir and examination of the American way of death.

A carefully stated cri de guerre against “the current cult of leadership” that characterizes corporate culture—and leads to extraordinary paychecks.

Why is it that the head of an American corporation should be paid millions—sometimes tens of millions—more per year than an entry-level worker there? Ask a member of the board, writes legal scholar Dorff (Southwestern Law School), and you’re likely to be told that chief executive compensation is so high because that leader is indispensable to the success of the company. In the case of GE’s Jack Welch, that may have been so: After all, he increased the company’s worth nearly 30 times over in his tenure. But what of those executives who preside over near-catastrophic loss of worth and market share, layoffs and scandal, yet receive their stock payouts and fat paychecks regardless? The theories underlying the supposed indispensability of the CEO, writes Dorff, lack “strong empirical support.”

Instead, in many cases, CEOs are rewarded disproportionately simply because other CEOs are rewarded disproportionately.

A corporate culture has developed in which it’s assumed that this vicious circle is the natural order of things; it’s not corruption or cronyism that makes this so, but a simple misreading of the world. Dorff proposes that rather less quantifiable rewards be encouraged, among them “harnessing reputational desires, creating motivational cultures, and cultivating internal drives.”

Understandably, many bosses will prefer the money, but Dorff ’s insistence that corporations need less-expensive leadership seems intuitively right. If nothing else, the shift in accounting methods that he describes favors the reforms he suggests, including perhaps adding more restricted stock to compensation packages instead of options, which “reduces the lottery factor in CEO pay.

A provocative thesis couched in measured, scholarly language. Watch the editorial pages of Bloomberg News and the Wall Street Journal to see whether it catches on.

THE EDIBLE SOUTH The Power of Food and the Making of an American Region

Ferris, Marcie Cohen Univ. of North Carolina (512 pp.) $35.00 | Sep. 22, 2014 978-1-4696-1768-8

Food serves as a useful lens for examining race, economics, gender and class in the South, from plantation days to the present.

In this authoritative social history, Ferris (American Studies/ Univ. of North Carolina; Matzoh Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales of the Jewish South, 2005) draws on a rich trove of material, including oral histories, journals, sketchbooks, letters and diaries, as well 52

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as cookbooks and published scholarship. In the 19th century, New England–born women, working in the South as governesses, described in detail new culinary experiences: breakfasts featuring several kinds of breads, succotash, hominy and ham; desserts of stewed cherries; peaches finely sliced and served with cream. In letters home, they became “ethnographers of a sort, documenting and critiquing southern society, manners, food, and institutions, including slavery.” One governess, seeing slaves eating their owners’ leftovers, admitted uncomfortably, “I haven’t learned yet how to give my leavings with a good grace.” After the Civil War, plantation owners, unable to farm without slaves, rented land to tenant farmers and sharecroppers, insisting, though, that they grow only cotton or tobacco, profitable cash crops. Forbidden to raise vegetables, the farmers and their families subsisted on a diet of cornmeal, salt pork, beans and molasses, which caused severe malnutrition. Federal relief programs, home economics classes in schools and the advent of industrial farming slowly revived agriculture. By the 1940s, fashioning itself as a tourist destination, the South looked back nostalgically to its “rich culinary heritage,” luring visitors with the attractions of “southern hospitality, culinary artistry, authenticity, and antiquity.” Food was also central to civil rights protests in the 1960s, with sit-ins often staged at restaurants and lunch counters. Ferris sees a true transformation today: Southern cooking, influenced by cosmopolitan chefs with strong ties to the region, revives the use of fresh, local produce from small-scale farms.

In this colorful and well-researched history, the author shows persuasively how food has shaped and nourished Southern identity. (50 illustrations)

and plenty of worthy football nuggets and insights become evident. Finebaum presents a sharp profile of Texas A&M and many chromatic vignettes of other football towns. The author also picks coaches apart. Of legendary Alabama coach Bear Bryant, he writes, “I couldn’t understand a word he said. It was as if he were speaking in tongues.” And former Florida and current Ohio State coach Urban Meyer: “a good and decent person underneath the steely demeanor. Don’t misunderstand me: I wouldn’t want to go on an Alaskan cruise with him.” For all Finebaum’s ego and opinions, there is plenty of false modesty. As a TV commentator, he writes, “I was born with the facial elasticity of an IRS auditor.” The author is always well-informed and plenty happy to deliver judgment: “Clemson is always good for at least one inexplicable letdown per season.”

Finebaum is articulate and knows his football, though this book is just more candy for his admirers and grist for the mills of his detractors. (8-page color photo insert)

MEXICANS IN THE MAKING OF AMERICA

Foley, Neil Belknap/Harvard Univ. (340 pp.) $29.95 | Sep. 8, 2014 978-0-674-04848-5

A scholar specializing in the American Southwest tells the underappreciated story of the Mexicans who have helped build America.

Hundreds of years before any Anglo crossed the Mississippi westward, Mexicans lived in the present-day American West and Southwest. Ever since, their descendants have occupied a peculiar position in our history.

With more than a little justice, Chicano activists, protesting their treatment in the United States, declared during the 1960s, “We didn’t cross the border, the border crossed us.” Foley (History/Southern Methodist Univ.; Quest For Equality: The Failed Promise of Black-Brown Solidarity, 2010, etc.) sets forth the genesis of Mexican America with an introductory, potted history of the Spanish conquest. He devotes more space to the borderaltering U.S. land grab of a third of Mexico’s territory, first with the annexation of Texas and then with 1848’s Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The bulk of the narrative centers on the Mexican experience in America during the 20th century, the decadeslong push/pull between the United States and Mexico, the unceasing controversies over generations of legal and illegal immigrants, and the indispensability of Mexican-American labor to our economy versus the accompanying fear of the foreign.

Foley’s narrative becomes too crowded with passages discussing 1942’s Zoot Suit Riot in Los Angeles, Mexican-American wartime contributions, the Chicano Movement of the 1960s and ’70s and the “Decade of the Hispanic” in the ’80s. The author touches on the creation of the United Farm Workers, the “English First” movement and instances of recurring racism, ranging from the forthright “No Mexicans” signs of the 1940s to the “Frito Bandito” advertisements of the ’60s. For Americans long

MY CONFERENCE CAN BEAT YOUR CONFERENCE Why the SEC Still Rules College Football Finebaum, Paul; Wojciechowski, Gene Harper/HarperCollins (288 pp.) $26.99 | Aug. 5, 2014 978-0-06-229741-9

A pedal-to-the-metal survey of SEC football.

Radio and TV sports personality Finebaum is known as the “Mouth of the South,” and for the first few pages, his local boosterism and sheer windbaggery will make readers understand why his title comes with capital letters: “The SEC is college football’s version of Rome, the center of the football universe. Long may it rule.” Given the past 10-plus years in college football, it may be hard to argue with him on that note. When he comes out with “the most meaningful traditions,” readers may have already had enough, but then another note creeps in—“the most decadent football stadiums… the most obscene operating budgets…the kind of personal scandals that give TMZ a reason to live…the most obnoxiously large marching bands”—and you realize that the Mouth has a Tongue that is at least partly in Cheek. Wade through the logorrhea, |

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INTERVIEWS & PROFILES

Lacy M. Johnson

After years of avoiding the subject, Johnson reveals the details of the night she wasn’t supposed to survive

By Alex Layman matters. Fourteen years have passed since that night, but the events and aftermath chronicled in The Other Side still haunt her. “Every present moment, even now, has traveled through that one moment in the past,” she explains. “This is a book I have always known I was going to write.” Johnson is the author of a 2012 memoir, Trespasses, about three generations coming of age in the Great Plains. But the painful event that is the focus of The Other Side occurred “just as I was beginning to think of myself as a writer,” Johnson says.

“It always shaped what I was trying to learn to do. I would write about that night periodically, but I realized eventually I had never really talked about what had happened. I was always trying to write around the story. It was difficult for me to look at the core of what had happened.”

Avoiding the core of the story made healing impossible for Johnson. The crippling aftermath of that night shrouded her in darkness, rendering her voice and body powerless. Years passed before she began to critically explore how that night shaped her life, and even now, answers do not come easily. “Sometimes I think there is no entirely true story I could tell,” she writes. “Because there are some things I just don’t know, and other things I just can’t say. Which is not a failure of memory but of language. What I’m trying to do is to draw connections between different arguments and images. Not just between points of the book, but also to people’s own experiences. There’s a lot of silence and blank space.”

The difficulty of finding the right language is compounded by the fact that the events of that night still lack closure. To date, The Suspect—one of many titles he has in the book, none of which are his real name—lives a free life in Venezuela, where he fled after the kidnapping. “Typically, the narrative

Photo courtesy Josh Okun

A blood-filled bucket sits beneath a homemade wooden chair with a missing 2-by-4-inch piece of wood. Lacy Johnson has just freed herself from the chair’s restraints. She puts her clothes back on and examines the room. She stands near the door, U bolts locked around her wrist, holding the priedoff 2-by-4 overhead. She is waiting for him to come back—The Suspect, her Spanish Teacher, The Man She Used to Live With—to bash him over the head, then run. Hours earlier, she was kidnapped, strapped to the chair in the soundproofed room and raped. He has left to corroborate an alibi. When he returns, he plans to kill her.

But he does not return—not then, in the moment she readies to strike—and Johnson flees for the police station, half-alive and half-dead in every way that 54

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of crime and closure in the United States is that the perpetrator gets arrested, there’s a trial, he goes to jail,” Johnson says. “That’s the end of our imagination about what justice looks like. The hardest part for me wasn’t that he wasn’t brought to justice, but that I felt I had to hide. I had no way to close my own feelings about that. You can’t stop fear.”

To reach the other side, however, lack of justice is always secondary to Johnson’s battle with fear and quest for resurrection. Stopping fear may be impossible, but there are ways to eradicate it, to grind it down over time. One way she reconstructs herself in the story is by refusing to give The Suspect, or anyone else, a proper name. “It became really important when writing this book, which is really claustrophobic and narrow, to have all the characters defined in their relationship to me,” she explains. “For me, it became really powerful. If I gave him, or anyone, a name, I gave them a bit of power. He doesn’t get his name. He only gets a title in his relationship to me. I am the only person that has any power over the story.”

Now, with this reclaimed sense of power, Johnson admits that her job as a writer is about to take on a new challenge: filling in that blank space. After years of avoiding the subject, she’s put the horrific events of that night on full display in her memoir. “There’s another kind of journey I’m going through now where I have to tell people, ‘I was kidnapped, I was raped,’ ” she says. “There’s a really important conversation that’s already going on surrounding women and sexual assault, and we’re just barely touching the edge of what needs to be said. At first, I was really nervous because it is such a charged subject. But I think it’s really important to push against that stigma and take that charge out of the words.”

Part of Johnson’s stand is motivated by the thought that her 7-year-old daughter will one day read the book. “I wasn’t a powerful person. But I am now. Now, it’s important for me to talk about it. I’m trying to raise my daughter to be a powerful person so that she doesn’t find herself having to learn to be a powerful person.”

For years, fear that The Suspect would arrive unannounced crippled her. Lack of closure left her hollow, aimless. Fourteen years later, her voice is clear, bold and proud that she has finally reached the other side of darkness. “I’ve found a way to be brave,” she says proudly. “I’m not going to hide anymore,

and I’m not going to stay silent. I’m not going to be ashamed of this story. I’m going to be outspoken and honest and talk about it to anyone who asks. That’s a different type of justice.”

Alex Layman is a writer living in Austin.

The Other Side received a starred review in the Jun. 1, 2014, issue of Kirkus Reviews.

The Other Side Johnson, Lacy M. Tin House (232 pp.) $15.95 | Jul. 15, 2014 978-1-935639-83-1

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“The boldface names give the book curb appeal, but this memoir’s hidden strength is its testimony to the beauty and difficulty of a long-term marriage.” from timeless

WILDE IN AMERICA Oscar Wilde and the Invention of Modern Celebrity

accustomed to understanding the country’s development as an east-to-west phenomenon, Foley’s singular service is to urge us to tilt the map south to north and to comprehend conditions as they have been for some time and will likely be for the foreseeable future.

A timely look at and appreciation of a fast-growing demographic destined to play an increasingly important role in our history. (22 halftones; 2 maps)

Friedman, David M. Norton (304 pp.) $26.95 | Oct. 6, 2014 978-0-393-06317-2

An account of the notorious author’s American tour.

In 1882, Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) set out for a yearlong American lecture tour, backed by Richard D’Oyly Carte, whose production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta Patience had just opened in the United States. Because its central character parodied an aesthete—a social type unfamiliar to Americans—Carte surmised that putting the young man on display would pique interest and increase ticket sales. As Friedman (The Immortalists: Charles Lindbergh, Dr. Alexis Carrel, and Their Daring Quest to Live Forever, 2007, etc.) shows, Wilde was eager to comply. The 27-year-old, author of a single volume of poems that had garnered tepid reviews, lusted after fame.

In London, he insinuated himself into circles of the rich and famous, convinced that stardust rubs off. An exhibitionist, he believed that “life is a performance,” and he enacted “an opera of opportunism” everywhere he went. Following Wilde through his American travels, Friedman focuses each chapter on one of Wilde’s revelations about how to become a celebrity: “Take Your Show on the Road,” “Build Your Brand,” “Work the Room,” “Strike a Pose,” “Celebrity is Contagious,” “The Subject is Always You,” “Promote is Just Another Word for Provoke,” “Keep Yourself Amused” and “Go Where You’re Wanted (and Even Where You’re Not)”—i.e., “bad publicity is still publicity.” These ideas overlap, as do the chapters themselves, which detail Wilde’s foppish sartorial choices, from shoulder-length hair to patentleather shoes, and describe a multitude of receptions, train trips, and delivery of each lecture on beauty, home decoration or the English Renaissance. In some cities, fashionable people filled the halls, but Wilde faced half-empty rooms in places where his reputation for being “the sovereign of insufferables” preceded him. Several amusing anecdotes stand out, such as Wilde’s first meeting with Walt Whitman, himself “a self-taught genius at self-promotion.”

Although Friedman fashions a lively narrative, this book does not significantly embellish the already wellknown image of the outrageous, self-aggrandizing Wilde.

(16 pages of illustrations)

TIMELESS Love, Morgenthau, and Me

Franks, Lucinda Sarah Crichton/Farrar, Straus and Giroux (416 pp.) $27.00 | Aug. 19, 2014 978-0-374-28080-2

Portrait of the enduring romance between Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Franks and long-serving New York County district attorney Robert Morgenthau.

Franks (My Father’s Secret War: A Memoir, 2007, etc.) looks back on her life and marriage to the much older Morgenthau with focus and candor, and she endeavors to “talk about the personal life that he has kept so private during his forty-five years as a public figure.” The author first depicts their mutual attraction against the tumult of 1970s New York City, which had driven the rebellious, feminist Franks to become a Times reporter: “I ended up deciding not to join the Weathermen and to write its story instead.” Yet, she scandalized her fellow leftists in 1976 by dating Morgenthau, a low-key yet powerful establishment scion (his father was a prominent Franklin Roosevelt adviser, and he’d served heroically in World War II, as had her own father) who enjoyed public approval and a reputation for rectitude during a chaotic, high-crime era. Once they married, Franks contended with Morgenthau’s difficulty in moving past his revered first wife, who died following a painful bout with cancer. She also struggled to move her writing forward despite the duties of a “society wife,” though she continued to pursue prominent projects, such as her controversial interview with Hillary Clinton following the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Franks’ chiseled prose demonstrates her chops as a veteran journalist, although the narrative slackens somewhat as the couple settles into domesticity and Morgenthau continues to score high-profile legal victories. They encountered rough patches and periods of quarrel but also successfully raised two children in addition to Morgenthau’s earlier family. Ultimately, they always returned to a state of marital grace: “I rather envied Bob’s ability to start every moment anew, as though the present were the future and the past never happened.”

The boldface names give the book curb appeal, but this memoir’s hidden strength is its testimony to the beauty and difficulty of a long-term marriage.

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MOUNTAIN TO MOUNTAIN A Journey of Adventure and Activism for the Women of Afghanistan

MADEMOISELLE Coco Chanel and the Pulse of History

Garelick, Rhonda K. Random House (608 pp.) $35.00 | Sep. 30, 2014 978-1-4000-6952-1 978-0-679-60426-6 e-book

Galpin, Shannon St. Martin’s (320 pp.) $26.99 | Sep. 16, 2014 978-1-250-04664-2

An adventurous American mountain biker’s journey of self-discovery in Afghanistan.

“It’s a place I’m inexplicably drawn to—wanting to understand it in hopes that I may understand myself,” writes Galpin, whose life was derailed by a violent attack and rape in her early 20s. She later helped with fundraising to help girls’ schools in Afghanistan, and she became the first American woman to mountain bike in Afghanistan. Since then, she has made several trips there, developing relationships and pursuing her own brand of activism. Full of vivid anecdotes, the narrative is most enjoyable when recounting the author’s chronicles of her travel and interactions with Afghans. Galpin also takes us through her divorce and her struggles as a single mother in Boulder while founding her nonprofit, Mountain2Mountain, to promote “the power of voice” through support of the arts and bike riding by women. Eventually, this led to a photography exhibit in Afghanistan, a TED talk, her meeting with the Afghan women’s national cycling team, and her creation of an international program, Strength in Numbers. The power of voice is a constant theme, though what exactly that power amounts to in either the political or spiritual realm remains somewhat vague. Galpin seems anxious about being heard, sometimes to the point of undermining the power of her book with long sections in which she defends her choices as a mother and activist and airs her frustrations with the world of nonprofit organizations. Her many descriptions of uniformly upbeat banter with her young daughter also feel indirectly defensive. However, her respect and love for the Afghan people is apparent, as are her nerve and determination to help those in need.

An uneven but ultimately inspiring personal story of an American mountain biker finding her vocation as an international activist. (two 8-page color photo inserts)

An admiring but evenhanded portrait of Coco Chanel’s (1883-1971) life and loves.

Cultural biographer Garelick (Electric Salome: Loie Fuller’s Performance of Modernism, 2007, etc.) fully acknowledges the spate of recent research into Chanel’s wartime collaboration with the Nazis from her Hotel Ritz perch in occupied Paris—e.g., Hal Vaughan’s hard-hitting Sleeping with the Enemy (2011). Though providing no new revelations, Garelick offers a fine psychological portrait of the poor orphaned girl who spent seven years in an abbey, where she learned to sew and feel safety within its reassuring order and cleanliness (traits with which she would later imbue her couture). From working as a seamstress with her aunt Adrienne, then trying her luck as a backing singer in cafes and “water girl” in the Vichy spas, she possessed charm rather than beauty and, more than anything, the drive to attain her freedom the only way she knew how: with lots of money. A companion to rich playboys, she found in Englishman Arthur Capel a like-minded feminist partner; he set her up making hats out of his Paris apartment, then among the fledgling clothing boutiques in Deauville and Biarritz. A natural saleswoman and commander of workers, she succeeded smashingly on her own terms, adopting mannish, comfortable clothing that freed the feminine form from corsets and bindings, elevating cheap jersey and faux pearls as elements of high style, and essentially remaking the female silhouette in her own image: boyish, slim-hipped, flat-chested and athletic.

Garelick pursues the catalog of Chanel’s subsequent ill-fated lovers, her work with the Ballets Russes, her vast earnings from Chanel No. 5 and her fraught partnership with the Wertheimer brothers while frankly discussing her relentless, social-climbing attraction to right-wing, reactionary and racist elements.

Certainly a definitive portrait, especially considering Garelick’s intriguing venture into modern “branding.” (photos throughout)

HOW TO BE A VICTORIAN A Dawn-to-Dusk Guide to Victorian Life Goodman, Ruth Liveright/Norton (464 pp.) $29.95 | Oct. 1, 2014 978-0-87140-485-5

Corsets, child labor and a mortal fear of masturbation: a wonderfully detailed romp through the “day-to-day reality of life” for Victorian men and women. |

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“A powerful, rational guidebook to creating genuinely effective education, written in a manner useful not just for schoolteachers, but everyone involved in the care of children.” from building a better teacher

Having spent a year on a “Victorian” farm, among other antiquated kinds, and written about it (co-author: Victorian Farm: Rediscovering Forgotten Skills, 2008, etc.), English social historian Goodman proves an amiable companion in sharing the intimate daily routine of the Victorian, including all social classes and ranging over more than 60 years, from Queen Victoria’s early reign to her twilight. Goodman begins the day with the knocker-upper, wandering the streets at all hours with a long cane and lantern to knock on windows and wake up his working-class clients for their factory jobs (since few then could afford clocks and watches).

The author then continues through the chilly morning ablutions at the washstand, elaborate dressing rituals, long workday, bland meals and, finally, “a few snatched hours of leisure.” The author dispels many myths about these buttoned-up souls (that they were unclean, prudish or unfun) and shows how many notions of personal hygiene, kitchen science and sexuality were revolutionized during this era—e.g., the insistence on extensive circulation of air in rooms, the preference for breathable fabrics like wool and cotton, the adoption of baths and public bathing, the switch from privy to water closet and the use of contraceptives. Goodman claims to have made condoms from sheep’s guts, which were used before the vulcanization of rubber in 1843. In 1862, officials set standards for schools, including written examinations, imparting a national focus on formal education (even for girls).

Throughout, Goodman relates her own experiences immersed in the Victorian world, such as her surprisingly pleasant time wearing a corset.

A lively, expert resource for historical minutiae. (131 illustrations; 8 pages of color)

conversations and observations that uncover the approaches that the best educators share, she distills how they apply those approaches in similar ways despite differences in extraversion/ introversion, humorous/serious teaching approaches, and flexible/rigid standards. Green goes deeper than bromides about student engagement and motivation, digging into data about student success as well as examining the means used to collect the data. She also chronicles her visits with professionals at multiple levels (administrative, support, frontline teachers) through various successes and failures, gleaning wisdom from both—just as the best teachers would have their students do.

A powerful, rational guidebook to creating genuinely effective education, written in a manner useful not just for schoolteachers, but everyone involved in the care of children.

THE VULGAR TONGUE Green’s History of Slang

Green, Jonathon Oxford Univ. (432 pp.) $29.95 | Oct. 1, 2014 978-0-19-939814-0

A lexicographer chronicles the language of the streets.

Green (Green’s Dictionary of Slang, 2011, etc.) complements his three-volume compendium of slang terms with this historical overview of slang’s evolution, its recurring themes, and its function “to mock, to undermine, to showcase skepticism and doubt.” Slang, as the author defines it, is a special vocabulary associated with urban life that “resists the niceties of the respectable. It is impertinent…unconvinced by rules, regulations and ideologies.” Since speech is ephemeral, Green draws on extensive research in literature and the media, as well as specialized dictionaries and lexicons, such as copious notes assembled by Walt Whitman, who admitted to being “an industrious collector” of words, with slang “one of my specialties.” Much of the book follows slang chronologically, finding linguistic evidence in classical Rome; medieval Europe; Elizabethan England; and teeming 18th-century cities riddled with crime. Green devotes a chapter to Australia, where penal settlements were populated with British criminals who brought their own argot.

As a young officer wrote in the late 1700s, “[t]he sly dexterity of the pickpocket, the brutal ferocity of the footpad, the more elevated career of the highwayman and the deadly purpose of the midnight ruffian” each resulted in a distinct “unnatural jargon.” Besides crime, sex, the author asserts, “has been the driving force for as long as the vocabulary has been collected,” and he offers abundant examples of words referring to relevant body parts and their functions. Homosexuality has generated its own vocabulary (and its own chapter, “Gayspeak: The Lavender Lexicon”), as has bawdy cockney slang, with its use of rhyming, which still flourishes in London. American slang arose from a desire to distinguish the new country’s language from its British origins, with later contributions from various influxes

BUILDING A BETTER TEACHER How Teaching Works (and How to Teach It to Everyone)

Green, Elizabeth Norton (320 pp.) $27.95 | Aug. 4, 2014 978-0-393-08159-6

Ideas from a former principal on what makes for an exceptional teacher.

Accountability and autonomy are the two guiding lights for prescribing changes in our schools, and as Green notes early on in this book, the two principles are often at loggerheads. Accountability proponents believe in leveraging the power of data to study which teachers’ students are meeting or exceeding goals; opponents claim that it stultifies educators, diminishing the profession, and ineffectively measuring teacher and student “success.”

Autonomy proponents believe that if you elevate the profession and let the teachers steer their ships, the trust, freedom and respect will enable them to do their very best. Green gives both of these views credence but goes further to suggest that the reverence surrounding the best teachers is misguided, in that it elevates the “natural born educator” mythos that suggests an inborn talent. Green deflates the “I could never do what they do” aura of the best teachers, but in a good way. In extensive 58

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WAY BELOW THE ANGELS The Pretty Clearly Troubled But Not Even Close to Tragic Confessions of a Real Live Mormon Missionary

of immigrants. African-American slang, prominent in hip-hop, has spread internationally and through classes, becoming the dominant slang of the 20th century.

In this abundantly detailed history, Green argues that a counterlanguage will always exist, providing a voice for the marginalized and expressing deep—and sometimes dark— human needs.

Harline, Craig Eerdmans (272 pp.) $22.00 | Aug. 15, 2014 978-0-8028-7150-3

HIROSHIMA NAGASAKI The Real Story of the Atomic Bombings and their Aftermath

Two years as a Mormon missionary in Belgium.

Harline (European History/BYU; Conversions: Two Family Stories from the Reformation and Modern America, 2011, etc.) spends a good deal of this reminiscence clowning around in a charming fashion, like the harmless and naïve teenager he was when he accepted a two-year mission to proselytize the Mormon faith in Belgium. Unfortunately, Belgium was a land of Catholics, and Harline had been taught “that the Catholic Church was wicked. And weird. The Church of the Devil. The Whore of All the Earth….Wouldn’t all those Belgian people in Catholic darkness be glad to see me?” However, the Belgians were not in the market for Harline’s goods, and the author knew he was not cut from the proselytizer’s cloth. He did not like the doors shut in his face, the poor Belgian weather, the dogs sent out to investigate his presence, the occasional display of firearms and, probably most of all, the near misses.

Furthermore, he had to conduct himself in Dutch, a language he found “close to alarming.” But he was not without faith and humor; he was not just a devout young man, but a searcher. He was open to the sublime, and he found it in Belgium’s timeless places, such as a forest near the village of Godsheide in the late-afternoon winter light, where “we knew we were in some other world, like we and every person, thing, and place we’d ever known, done, or been were all there too, at once… toujours vu, always seen.” Along the way, Harline learned a lot about being himself and had many profound experiences. In his memoir, he displays a fine mix of pathos and hilarity as he describes imagining what people made of his Dutch, laughing at his “stainless-steel suit,” and giving thanks for the virtues learned and the connections made.

An unvarnished, mostly bewildered and touchingly human memoir.

Ham, Paul Dunne/St. Martin’s (640 pp.) $35.00 | Aug. 5, 2014 978-1-250-04711-3

A provocative look at the closing days of the Japanese Empire and the long shadow cast ever after by the atomic bomb.

The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not have to happen: Thus, in a nutshell, is Sunday Times Australia correspondent Ham’s (1913: The Eve of War, 2013, etc.) position, as distinct from that of many authors and historians who have insisted that the United States would have suffered more than 1 million casualties in any invasion of the Japanese mainland. Ham’s lines of argument introduce several profitable data points: For one thing, the emperor seemed inclined to peace even as the peace faction within his government grew with the dawning realization of the inevitability of defeat. For another thing, the destruction of the two cities, which were not of primary military value, was as much a signal to Joseph Stalin that that is what awaited his country as it was an effort to force the peace with Japan. Ham also looks at pregnant counterfactuals: What if Harry Truman had taken Henry Stimson’s suggestion and approached the Soviets as partners, committing with the other Allies not to use atomic weapons without the consent of all involved? Of a piece with W.G. Sebald in the matter of the bombing of Dresden and other German cities, Ham argues persuasively that the atomic destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki represented but two episodes in an all-out “process of deliberate civilian annihilation”—a process, interestingly, that found many critics in American churches who “quietly registered their Christian disapproval of the mass killing of noncombatants.”

A valuable contribution to the literature of World War II that asks its readers to rethink much of what they’ve been taught about America’s just cause.

HOPE FOR FILM From the Frontline of the Independent Cinema Revolutions

Hope, Ted with Kaufman, Anthony Soft Skull Press (296 pp.) $25.00 | Aug. 12, 2014 978-1-61902-332-1

A relentlessly useful insider’s guide to independent film from a longtime practitioner. |

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So, why is it that in independent films—that is, films made outside the traditional studio system—the sets make Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets look like the Emerald City? That’s easy, writes Hope, the production power behind 21 Grams, American Splendor and other films made by his production company, Good Machine. The answer is that there’s no money to be had, and whatever money there is has to go into the movie itself and not, say, the marketing budget: “[S]o invariably productions are based in the ugly sections of town where the rents are cheap.” That insight alone casts new light on Ghost World, Wonderland and many other on-the-thin-dime films.

Most of those films scarcely see the light of day, outside a few art houses, festivals and perhaps IFC, but when they do, it’s usually as much a surprise to the director as to everyone else.

Take In the Bedroom, which, magisterial performances by Tom Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek aside, made the jump to the big time mostly because the distributor put more money into it.

“Usually, a film is worth the most when it first hits the marketplace,” notes Hope matter-of-factly, but such added money also increases a film’s shelf life. Part memoir and part textbook, the book offers a variety of insights, from the workflows involved in promoting a film via social media to the astonishingly complex politics of dealing with a nonprofit organization. Hope even has a few kind words for critics, such as this entry in the section that closes the book, “100 Opportunities for Making the American Independent Film Industry Better”: “Loss of job for newspaper based film critics reduces curatorial oversight which lessens word-of-mouth and want-to-see.”

Invaluable for film students, especially since, in assuming that its readers have some understanding of art, Hope can hit the topic of money hard.

mainly Hindu India.” Adding to the imminent instability was the new nation’s push to adopt Urdu as its official language, when nearly 25 percent of the population of East Pakistan was Hindu and used other predominant languages like Pashtun. Jinnah’s early death in 1948 left an unfortunate leadership vacuum and a perpetual internal debate over Pakistan’s national identity. Jalal delineates painstakingly how, in the decades that followed, Pakistan, unlike India, was unable to build institutions of participatory democracy and instead moved toward a centralization of power “under the auspices” of military and bureaucracy. Alliance with the United States is not the sole reason for its militarism, argues Jalal, but it was fed by paranoia of India’s dominance over Kashmir and the need to build its defense forces. Tracing key events—the initial imposition of martial law

by President Iskander Mirza in 1958, the 1971 civil war that created Bangladesh, the rise and fall of populist leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and one assassination after the other—Jalal brings us to the present day, where Pakistan, despite being called a failing or failed state, continues to hope for change.

A hard sell for nonacademic readers but an elucidating journey for scholars. (22 halftones; 4 maps)

EISENHOWER A Life

Johnson, Paul Viking (144 pp.) $25.95 | Sep. 4, 2014 978-0-670-01682-2 When he left office in 1961, historians considered Dwight Eisenhower (18901969) a second-rate president. His reputation’s steady rise is not interrupted by this admiring, opinionated account by veteran British journalist and historian Johnson (Mozart, 2013, etc.).

Although he remained in the United States during World War II and spent two decades in the shrunken peacetime Army, Eisenhower’s talents were well-known. Gen. Douglas MacArthur kept him as an aide for nine years, and George Marshall summoned him to Washington a week after Pearl Harbor. Commanding the largest military force in history (20 times the size of MacArthur’s), Eisenhower kept Allied generals focused on the effort against the Nazis, even when they were often fighting among themselves. Victory made him a national hero, and he easily won the 1952 election over Democratic nominee Adlai Stevenson. During the 1950s, the prospect of World War III seemed imminent. Several joint chiefs wanted to get on with it, but Eisenhower kept the military firmly under his thumb. He receives credit for ending the Korean War but little for refusing to strike back at China’s threats to Formosa; his military advisers were raring to go. Despite national panic that followed the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik in 1957, Eisenhower quashed efforts to launch crash military programs. John F. Kennedy, a far more aggressive Cold Warrior, spent the 1960 campaign denouncing Eisenhower for underestimating the communist threat. Johnson astutely points out that Eisenhower enjoyed

THE STRUGGLE FOR PAKISTAN A Muslim Homeland and Global Politics Jalal, Ayesha Belknap/Harvard Univ. (420 pp.) $35.00 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-0-674-05289-5

A scholarly, depressing portrait of a country whose allegiance to Islam has not been able to hold it together nor prevent its being convulsed by cycles of violence.

Pakistani-American historian Jalal (History/Tufts Univ.; The Pity of Partition: Manto’s Life, Times, and Work across the IndiaPakistan Divide, 2013, etc.) offers a comprehensive history of Pakistan since its inception in 1947, with an eye toward its defining post-colonial element: military rule. Envisioned by its founder, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, as an arrangement of equitable power sharing between the Muslim provinces and Hindustan (as he called India), Pakistan nonetheless emerged with the dismembered provinces Punjab and Bengal a “truncated…motheaten and mutilated state” that was expected to collapse under the weight of its own contradictions. While created as a Muslim homeland, Pakistan left 40 million “to their own devices in 60

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“Dynamite examples rendered in funny, spirited writing.” from men

MEN Notes from an Ongoing Investigation

being president since, unlike generals Washington, Jackson and Grant, his best qualities were not those of a warrior but a staff officer: efficiency, administration, economy and flexibility.

A 120-page monograph cannot replace a complete biography, the best being Jean Edward Smith’s Eisenhower in War and Peace (2012). Though Johnson’s well-known right-wing views deliver an occasional jolt, this book remains a thoroughly entertaining introduction.

Kipnis, Laura Metropolitan/Henry Holt (224 pp.) $25.00 | Nov. 18, 2014 978-1-62779-187-8 Feisty, unapologetic forays into the messiness of gender relations.

In these essays, most previously published, outspoken feminist Kipnis (Radio/TV/Film/Northwestern Univ.; How to Become a Scandal: Adventures in Bad Behavior, 2010, etc.) fashions a fitting companion to her previous, self-described “conflicted” work on femininity, The Female Thing (2006). Male types—e.g., “the Con Man,” “the Manly Man”—fascinate the author and offer a way inside the male psyche in order to find out what men really think of women—and why we should care. Refreshingly, Kipnis operates by plunging into her subject, getting her hands dirty, her critics be damned—for example, reading back issues of Hustler magazine before interviewing publisher Larry Flynt—“the Scumbag”—which director Milos Foreman would not do when he made his film The People vs.

Larry Flynt. Declaring the contents of the porn rag downright “Rabelaisian,” however gross, Kipnis offers some admiration that Flynt built his empire from the idea of fighting sexual repression. The author provides lively examples for each of her “types”: “Humiliation Artists,” like recently disgraced politician Anthony Weiner, are really all variations of the eponymous shame-seeking hero of Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint.

“Cheaters,” like Tiger Woods, can only operate successfully due to the phalanx of women who possess “willing self-abnegation.”

“The Trespasser” of Jackie Onassis’ privacy, photographer Ron Galella, is now elevated as an “artist,” and his aggressive stalking of his muse has been airbrushed. Kipnis reserves the final section for “Haters,” namely critics like Dale Peck, right-wing biographers of Hillary Clinton and even radical feminist icon Andrea Dworkin. Unafraid of offending the cause of political correctness, Kipnis is the kind of unfettered, freethinking observer who even questioned the nature of “unwanted sexual advances” at her school’s harassment workshop: “But how do you know they’re unwanted until you try?”

Dynamite examples rendered in funny, spirited writing.

STORY/TIME The Life of an Idea

Jones, Bill T. Princeton Univ. (104 pp.) $24.95 | Sep. 7, 2014 978-0-691-16270-6

An experimental dancer/choreographer/performance artist improvises on the nature of story itself in a unique format.

Derived from Jones’ presentations at Princeton University for the Toni Morrison Lectures in 2012, the text is a hybrid.

There is some introductory material explaining what follows— material that credits John Cage’s Indeterminacy (1958) for inspiration. (The author returns to consider Cage continually.) The central—and largest section—is a series of 60 single-page narratives, each designed to consume a minute of dance and reading.

Jones has used a computer’s random sorting program to arrange the narratives, so readers need to be alert as they move from page to page, for time and location and theme change rapidly, and chronology is an anachronism. In one 10-page segment, we move from a New Mexico mesa, to news about a friend’s death, to acquiring old family photographs, to John Cage’s diary, to a visit to Theresienstadt, to an amateur porn film. Readers become participants, seeking sense, as if looking at an unfamiliar landscape through the windows of a swiftly moving train.

Each narrative, however, has an emotional core that readers will feel, sometimes quite powerfully. Another major section is a collection of black-and-white photographs of the performances.

We see the performers, an image of time from a digital clock, and the author, seated at a small table, reading his narratives from a loose-leaf binder. The images conclude with a performer lying on the floor, mist swirling around. In the final section, Jones reflects on what he has done, tells how he began as a dancer and choreographer, and returns again to Cage, including a brief transcript of a conversation with Laura Kuhn, the John Cage Professor of Performance Art at Bard College.

A brave and often successful attempt to capture and display movement and intuition and the unspoken on the printed page.

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GOOD MORNING, MR. MANDELA A Memoir

“The argument that schools ought to prioritize learning skills over knowledge makes no sense; the very foundation for such skills is memorized knowledge. The more we know, the better we are at thinking,” writes the author, who warns that educators today are in danger of misunderstanding the basis for creativity. Elaborating on a suggestion made by Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman in his book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Leslie explains how long-term memory sharpens our intuitive grasp of a problem. “Unfettered curiosity is wonderful; unchanneled curiosity is not,” he writes. Children require direction about what they need to learn; even if they find classroom assignments boring, the lessons they learn may prove to be invaluable in the future. The ease of finding quick answers using search engines and Wikipedia can short-circuit serious investigation if ready access to the Internet is treated as a substitute for traditional, fact-based learning rather than an enhancement. The Internet, writes Leslie, “presents us with more opportunities to learn than ever before and also allows us not to bother.” We are the beneficiaries of “the Enlightenment’s great cascade of curiosity,” which laid the basis for modern society, but today we are in danger of being swamped by “an abundance, rather than a scarcity, of information.” The author concludes with a challenge: “Isaac Newton…felt he was standing on the shoulders of giants. From our own heady vantage point, we can take in a view of breathtaking majesty, a better one than was available to Newton….” It is up to us whether we, as individuals, parents and educators, “take advantage of [our] sublimely lucky break.”

A searching examination of information technology’s impact on the innovative potential of our culture.

la Grange, Zelda Viking (384 pp.) $28.95 | Jun. 24, 2014 978-0-525-42828-2

A loving portrait of Nelson Mandela (1918-2013) by a devoted assistant.

For 18 years, la Grange worked for Nelson Mandela, rising from typist to private secretary and finally to manager and spokesperson for his office. In this debut memoir, she recounts her stressful, demanding career as one of Mandela’s closest aides. It was an unlikely position for a white South African who was raised to hate and fear black people. “No person is born a racist,” she writes. “You become a racist by influences around you. And I had become a racist by the time I was thirteen years old.” Mandela, though, transformed her: He was a man, she attests, of unimpeachable integrity, humanity and kindness. Seeking no honors for himself, he worked tirelessly on issues of health, freedom and peace. In his 70s when she joined his staff, he treated her like a cherished granddaughter; she called him Khulu, or grandfather. The author chronicles Mandela’s whirlwind travels to raise funds for his three foundations and to fulfill countless invitations. He had become, the author writes, “the savior of everything and everybody.” In the course of those travels, la Grange met world leaders (the Clintons get special praise), movie stars (she was thrilled to meet Hugh Grant) and celebrity activists (Bono, for one, was much respected by Mandela). Part of her job was to protect Mandela from an onslaught of people requesting his help and from the relentless media. Although she writes that this is “not a tell-all book,” nor “a book of great political insights,” the author does expose vicious conflicts within Mandela’s family. Some relatives resented her and ordered her to stay out of Mandela’s personal life, but she could not help but run to his side when he called for his “Zeldina.”

In this warm tribute, la Grange testifies to Mandela’s charm and charisma and the profound changes he effected in her own life.

THE PRICE OF SILENCE A Mom’s Perspective on Mental Illness

Long, Liza Hudson Street/Penguin (304 pp.) $25.95 | Aug. 28, 2014 978-1-59463-257-0

The mother of a mentally ill son who suffered from uncontrollable rages proves to be a powerful advocate for children with mental illness and their families.

When Long worked at Boise State University, she maintained a Facebook blog to which she posted anonymously. In December 2012, when she learned about 20-year-old Adam Lanza’s murderous rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School, she was fearful for her son’s future. Until then, she had kept details of her son’s violent episodes secret from friends and coworkers due to the stigma attached to mental illness. After the Sandy Hook episode, she shared her cry for help in a blog post in which she revealed her own circumstances: “In the wake of another horrific national tragedy, it’s easy to talk about guns.

But it’s time to talk about mental illness.” Her post went viral and was subsequently published by Boise State’s online journal Blue Review with the title, “I Am Adam Lanza’s Mother.”

This led to a highly viewed Huffington Post repost and invitations

CURIOUS The Desire to Know and Why Your Future Depends On It Leslie, Ian Basic (224 pp.) $26.99 | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-465-07996-4

London-based writer Leslie (Born Liars: Why We Can’t Live Without Deceit, 2011) takes issue with current trends in education, debunking the idea that in the computer age, it is unnecessary and counterproductive for schools to teach facts.

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While certain technical portions may be difficult for some readers, true-crime enthusiasts will find the payoff worth the effort. (15 color photos; 20 b/w photos)

to appear on national talk shows. In her book, Long cites statistics that estimate the extent of mental illness in children to be “one in five children in the United States,” many of whom have few opportunities for treatment. She writes of the toll this takes on parents and her own yearslong struggle to get effective treatment for her son and how, after exhausting other options, she was forced to turn to the juvenile justice system for help. The author reviews advances in diagnosing childhood mental illness and unraveling the “complex cocktail of genetic predisposition, environmental facts, and family dynamics” that contribute to mental illness in children and adolescents. Only in 2013 was Long’s son diagnosed with bipolar disorder, compounded by problems of sensory integration.

A searing indictment of the lack of affordable care available for the treatment of mentally ill adolescents.

FLIGHT 93 The Story, the Aftermath, and the Legacy of American Courage on 9/11 McMillan, Tom Lyons Press (288 pp.) $25.95 | Sep. 11, 2014 978-0-7627-9522-2

Familiar story of the hijacked 9/11 plane that crashed into an open field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

The so-called “fourth plane” involved in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, United Airlines Flight 93 took off from Newark bound for San Francisco. When four young Middle Eastern men seized control of the cockpit, passengers fought back and prevented the terrorists from reaching their intended target: the Capitol in Washington, D.C. In this debut, McMillan, vice president of communications for the Pittsburgh Penguins and volunteer at the Flight 93 National Memorial, re-creates the event—based on passenger phone calls, the cockpit voice recorder, interviews and the official record of the past 13 years—as well as the aftermath, including the dedication of the memorial in 2011. Noting that “we will never know everything…many of the facts are buried with the heroes,” the author pieces together a vivid picture of the scene within the plane: the hijackers instilling fear in everyone (stabbing passengers, threatening to explode a nonexistent bomb) before killing the cockpit crew; the 40 varied passengers (from lawyers and businessmen to students and retirees), 12 of whom made 35 wrenching phone calls, learning that other planes had just slammed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon; and the brave decision to take back the plane before it destroyed yet another iconic American place.

Athletic passengers (a judo champ, a weight lifter, etc.) apparently joined businessman Todd Beamer (“Let’s roll!”) and others in storming the cockpit, while the hijacker pilot tried to thwart the sustained assault by rocking the plane. Flight 93 crashed at 563 mph, killing everyone and creating a crater 30 feet across and 15 feet deep. The author recounts the post-crash heroics of coroner Wally Miller and many others in the rural farming and coal-mining community.

A solid retelling of the tragedy with no new disclosures.

SILENT WITNESSES The Often Gruesome but Always Fascinating History of Forensic Science McCrery, Nigel Chicago Review (288 pp.) $16.95 paper | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-61373-002-7

The history of one of the foundational elements of entertainment media today—forensic evidence—and how it is that we make sense of it.

Former police officer and crime novelist McCrery (Tooth and Claw, 2009, etc.) worked for many years as a researcher and screenwriter for the BBC. In this history of forensic science, he dons all three hats at once. In the author’s note, McCrery explains that it was during his time as an officer that his interest in the field was established. “I was greatly impressed,” he writes, “that they could glean so much information from such a small amount of evidence.” What follows is a treatise on what the author considers to be the most important steps in forensic science. For example, “it is impossible to overstate the importance of DNA technology in the field of criminal investigation.” Rather than organize the book chronologically, McCrery structures it by sections focused on different aspects of forensic work: Identity, Ballistics, Blood, Trace Evidence, The Body, Poisons and DNA. In each section, the author presents meticulous research into the history of the subject. The “Blood” chapter teems with information about antigens, typing old blood and the many tests used throughout the centuries to determine if a stain was blood and then whether it was human or animal. The author also offers colorful anecdotes of investigations gone awry due to a lack of the correct scientific knowledge and murders that were eventually solved after forensic science methods developed enough.

However, while the wealth of information is both interesting and important, it is often dry as well. Where McCrery really shines is in his storytelling, which is no surprise given his background as a successful crime novelist. |

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“A fair-handed treatment from a towering historian and sterling writer.” from embattled rebel

EMBATTLED REBEL Jefferson Davis as Commander in Chief

THE FORTUNES OF AFRICA A History of the Continent Over Fifty Centuries

McPherson, James M. Penguin Press (352 pp.) $32.95 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-59420-497-5

Meredith, Martin PublicAffairs (704 pp.) $35.00 | Sep. 23, 2014 978-1-61039-459-8

A seasoned Civil War historian examines the beleaguered president of the Confederacy.

Did Jefferson Davis (1807/1808-1889) get a bum rap? Pulitzer Prize and two-time Lincoln Prize winner McPherson (History, Emeritus/Princeton Univ.;War on the Waters: The Union & Confederate Navies, 1861-1865, 2012, etc.) reveals the degree of vitriol unleashed against the president of the Confederacy from fellow Southerners who accused him of arrogance and malice due to the fact that he could not marshal the wherewithal to win the war. Indeed, the author shows how Davis constantly had to work against the recalcitrance of generals with an exalted opinion of their own worth—e.g., P.G.T. Beauregard and Joseph E. Johnston—as well as an illfated adoption of a politically motivated “dispersed defense” of troops around the perimeter of the Confederacy, rather than a more effective concentration of force. Unanimously elected as president of the Confederacy in 1861 as the South’s most accomplished military commander—he was a graduate of West Point, veteran of the Mexican-American War and served as secretary of war for President Franklin Pierce—Davis, despite horrendous ill health, made the most stirring articulation for Southern secession as a safeguard against the destruction of states’ “property in slaves” and continued to rally drooping public opinion even after Gen. Robert E. Lee had surrendered at Appomattox. Davis tended to get buried in paperwork, however, while public opinion was with the generals who had defied his command or failed to act—Johnston allowed Vicksburg to fall and “seemed prepared to yield” Richmond and Atlanta rather than fight to the finish—and against the generals Davis favored, such as Braxton Bragg and John C. Pemberton. Moreover, Davis faced an undeniable manpower crisis in the form of “epidemic” desertions and absences without leave. McPherson concludes that Davis, a disciplined, loyal commander, “was more sinned against than sinning.”

A fair-handed treatment from a towering historian and sterling writer.

Broad-ranging history of Africa from the age of the pharaohs to the present, with a solid emphasis on economics.

Former Observer correspondent and longtime Africa expert Meredith (Born in Africa: The Quest for the Origins of Human Life, 2011, etc.) delivers a richly detailed, occasionally plodding examination of a region of the world that, though central to human history, is too often overlooked, except by the economic powers that be—the World Bank estimates that 40 percent of Africa’s wealth is held outside Africa. Concludes Meredith, “Africa thus remains a continent of huge potential, but limited prospects.” People have always moved from place to place across the continent looking for access to its resources, sometimes in small groups, sometimes in vast waves, as when the Bantu-speaking peoples who originally lived in southern Cameroon spread across southern Africa. Yet, by Meredith’s account, once those resources are in hand, they are always unevenly divided; the peasants of ancient Egypt may have had access to the water wheel and an elaborate system of irrigation, but they were also subject to an even more elaborate system of taxation “that kept them as poor as they had always been.” That situation did not improve with the spread of Christianity and Islam, nor with the arrival of the colonial powers and the conversion of a vast part of the continent to a factory for the production of slaves for trans-Atlantic transport. As Meredith writes, by the 1600s, the European powers were looking far inland for slaves and had established great trading ports along Africa’s west coast, “separated from one another by an average of ten miles.” Small wonder that, absent so much human and natural capital, Africa has been immiserated for so long—a condition not improved by the widespread pattern of one-party or one-man rule today.

A useful study, though less interesting than John Reader’s Africa: A Biography of the Continent (1998).(This review first appeared in the BEA/ALA special issue.)

THE MARSHMALLOW TEST Mastering Self-Control

Mischel, Walter Little, Brown (304 pp.) $29.00 | Sep. 23, 2014 978-0-316-23087-2

Mischel (Psychology/Columbia Univ.) argues that our ability to voluntarily exercise self-restraint in pursuit of that just-got-to-have-it desire provides children with a powerful tool that can help them succeed later in life.

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Numerous research studies have suggested that those who practice self-control do better on their SATs, have great reserves of self-worth, less stress, and have less incidence of obesity and addiction. These are preliminary findings, notes the author, who developed the classic “marshmallow experiment,” which illustrates ideas of self-control and delayed gratification. The preponderance of evidence has not yet come down on one side or the other, and he acknowledges the powerful drive for instant gratification—he, too, wants it now, whatever it is, not at some nebulous time in the future. Mischel also notes that people with emotional grounding, advanced social skills and off-the-charts intellectual abilities can still be crippled by self-control issues.

The exact source of self-control remains a mystery: Is it a product of nature, of nurture or an acquired cognitive skill of some kind? Researchers have been able to identity two types: “Hot” self-control is “emotional, reflexive unconscious”; the “cool” variety is “cognitive, reflective, slower and effortful.” Undoubtedly, there will be nuances down the road, further complicating the picture, but for now, Mischel gets to the heart of the matter. “The emotional brain’s predisposition to overvalue immediate rewards and to greatly discount the value of delayed rewards,” writes the author, “points to what we need to do if we want to take control: we have to reverse the process by cooling the present and heating the future….push the temptation in front of you far away in space and time, and bring the distant consequences closer in your mind.”

No one will deny that self-control would make for a better planet, and this cogent guide suggests paths that may lead us to more conscious control of this desirable quality.

(This review first appeared in the BEA/ALA special issue.)

first tentative encounters with desire became interwoven into a collection of necklace charms meant to “evoke the wind in your hair and young love and escape, and behind all that carefree joy, something more elusive.” Experiences with love and loss—one belonging to Monroe and the other to Queen Victoria—became the inspiration behind a golden, heart-shaped locket containing a single bejeweled lovebird. Illustrated throughout with photographs and sketches of the projects he discusses, Monroe’s book is more than just an account of an artist’s past and its relationship to his work. It is also an extended essay that explores ways of seeing the world—especially the natural world—and how that vision gets translated into meaningful objects.

A gem of a book.

THE REPUBLIC OF IMAGINATION America in Three Books

Nafisi, Azar Viking (352 pp.) $28.95 | Oct. 21, 2014 978-0-670-02606-7

The Iranian-American author of Reading Lolita in Tehran (2003) makes a passionate argument for returning to key American novels in order to foster creativity and engagement.

Having taught literature both in post-revolutionary Iran and in America, teacher and author Nafisi (Things I’ve Been Silent About, 2008, etc.) finds in works by Mark Twain, Sinclair Lewis and Carson McCullers important lessons in combating nefarious trends in the West: insular thinking, bias and a utilitarian mindset. Literature, writes the author, is deliciously subversive because it fires the imagination and challenges the status quo. This can be dangerous in an authoritarian, repressive state such as Iran, but it is necessary for an informed citizenry. In America, however, where Nafisi became a citizen in 2008, she finds that the free access to democratic ideals and institutions have bred a complacency toward and even scorn for what cannot be used for political or ideological purposes, namely the liberal arts. In the character of Twain’s Huck Finn, Nafisi’s first and favorite example, she finds a quintessential American character from whom all others derive: a searching soul and a homeless “mongrel” whose “sound heart” gradually beats out his “deformed conscience.” In Babbitt, from Lewis’ 1922 eponymous novel, Nafisi reacquaints us with a smug, self-congratulatory figure of conformity who (still) mirrors our contemporary selves. In the fragile, childlike characters of McCullers’ The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1940), Nafisi notes the yearning for personal integrity and shared humanity. The author’s literary exegesis lightly moves through her own experiences as a student, teacher, friend and new citizen. Touching on myriad literary examples, from L. Frank Baum to James Baldwin, her work is both poignant and informative.

A literary study that derives its emotional power from Nafisi’s personal story and relationship.

TWO TURTLE DOVES A Memoir of Making Things Monroe, Alex Bloomsbury (240 pp.) $26.00 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-4088-4118-1

An English jewelry designer’s singularly engaging account of how a childhood pastime that involved making things by hand evolved into an artistic career.

The son of bohemian parents, Monroe spent his childhood growing up “between the woods and river in the wilds of Suffolk,” where he fought, fished and hunted with his siblings. He also drew and learned how to make things like counterfeit coins, gocarts and weapons to use against neighborhood boys from discarded pianos, furniture, bicycles, and other assorted odds and ends. In this book, Monroe interweaves stories from this idyllic childhood—as well as his more troubled adolescence and early adulthood—with meditations on the creative process that has since brought him international fame. Memory and artistic idea are inextricably bound in every piece he creates. The remembrance of a family mystery involving the death of a grandfather who loved to garden found its way into a delicate chrysanthemum wrought in gold. A story involving the teenage Monroe’s |

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“Spirited, intellectually sexy reading.” from unspeakable things

THE UNDERGROUND GIRLS OF KABUL In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan

UNSPEAKABLE THINGS Sex, Lies and Revolution

Penny, Laurie Bloomsbury (288 pp.) $16.00 paper | Sep. 16, 2014 978-1-62040-689-2

Nordberg, Jenny Crown (288 pp.) $25.00 | Sep. 16, 2014 978-0-307-95249-3

A British columnist and gender activist’s gutsy analysis of how neoliberal capitalism has taken the “ideals of freedom” and transformed them into “strategies of social [and sexual] control.”

The global financial collapse of 2008 revealed that neither the market nor the mainstream feminism that claimed to have made inroads into it was woman-friendly. The violence that accompanied the Occupy movement three years later only confirmed the radical inequality that underlay the social, political and economic systems of the developed world. In this book, which seeks to smash “the machinery” of 21st-century neoliberal capitalism, New Statesman contributing editor Penny (Meat Market: Female Flesh Under Capitalism, 2008, etc.) examines the current state of feminism in a money- and power-obsessed world. Drawing on her experiences with anorexia and mental illness, she explores the impact of “good girl” narratives of perfection on women, who are expected to cultivate their “erotic capital” rather than their talents to succeed both socially and financially. Men, whom the author sees as plagued by confusion, self-hatred and self-doubt, also suffer under neoliberal capitalist tyranny. A bisexual woman living and loving on the edges of both British and American cultures, Penny observes that inter- and cross-gender relationships form the basis of the “ritual dehumanization” and objectification of women by men. Since neither females nor males are free from misogynist ideology, neither finds true sexual fulfillment or freedom. The one possible space of liberation is the Internet. Through its emphasis on the written word, it allows women the promise of temporary release from the “weight and anxiety” of the female body. Fraught as it is with the visual lures of pornography and the dangers of bullying and stalking, cyberspace is still a place where revolutionary new forms of personal, sexual and political networking/organizing can take place, helping to overcome prevailing sexist social and economic systems.

Spirited, intellectually sexy reading.

A journalist’s fascinating study of the Afghan subculture of young girls raised to be boys.

In post-Taliban Afghanistan, men are still all-powerful.

Women—even those who wield some political influence—live mostly in a state of servitude. Yet some girls manage to enjoy the privileges of being male by living as boys. Known as bacha posh, these young females are usually members of families in which the only children are girls. They “become” boys through family fiat and then live as males “as long as the lie will hold or as long as the community goes along with it,” which usually means until adolescence. To better understand this phenomenon, Nordberg not only researched the histories of bachas, but also interviewed and observed them throughout various life stages. She tells the story of Mehran, the young fourth daughter of a female politician who “needed” a son to reinforce her family’s “good standing and reputation” in the community, as well as her own in the Afghan parliament. With several years until adolescence, Mehran could live in the happy freedom denied her sisters. However, as Nordberg shows through the story of Zahra, puberty—and the return to the second-class citizenship of womanhood it implied—could be gut-wrenchingly traumatic. For Shukria, being a bacha posh rendered her unable to desire men and eventually made her undesirable to her husband, who divorced her. But for Nader, who managed to continue living as a man into adulthood, her third gender status inspired her to coach younger bachas looking to resist Afghan patriarchy and remain autonomous. As affecting as the stories of these women are, Nordberg’s conclusion—that women’s rights are essential to “building peaceful civilizations”—is the most powerful message of this compelling book.

An intelligent and timely exploration into contemporary Afghanistan.

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NEVER TURN YOUR BACK ON AN ANGUS COW My Life as a Country Vet

an account of his field work or of his commendable conservation efforts (his work in Belize led to that country becoming the first in the world to give the jaguar a protected reserve); it is also a history of jaguars from the Pleistocene to the present day and an examination of the complex relationship between jaguars and the early civilizations of the New World. While various pre-Columbian cultures revered the jaguar, royalty and warriors regularly killed the animals for their skins, teeth and claws. The author examines his struggle to understand the essence of “jaguarness,” a quality he admiringly sums up as fudoshin, the state of mind of the most advanced practitioners of Japanese martial arts. Once Rabinowitz grasped that there was only one species of jaguar, not the eight geographically separate subspecies heretofore recognized, he saw the importance of linking isolated groups into a single breeding population from Mexico to Argentina. His current conservation efforts are directed toward establishing a wildlife travel route between breeding populations to decrease the risk of extinction. Rabinowitz also discusses the Jaguar Corridor Initiative, which involves conservationists working cooperatively with governments, private landowners and developers to create a model of how conservation and development can coexist.

An irresistible account that will be of great interest to conservationists and may make cat lovers look at their pets’ behaviors with new eyes.

Pol, Jan with Fisher, David Gotham Books (288 pp.) $27.00 | Aug. 18, 2014 978-1-59240-897-9

If you’re in the market to learn about breech-birthing a calf, this memoir by Michigan-based vet Pol is just the thing.

There’s an awful lot of the bovine reproductive tract in these pages and a number of startlingly yucky passages and sometimes the intersection of the two categories: “Her insides were torn apart, her intestines were lying on the ground, and her uterus was split. There was no way of stitching up that cow.” Born in the Netherlands, Pol writes that he learned early on that he wanted to be a veterinarian, and he did so with a vengeance; as he notes at the outset, he estimates that he’s treated half a million patients. The memoir, following the National Geographic Wild reality show The Incredible Dr. Pol, brings readers some of the more memorable of them, punctuated here and there by unsettling asides: For instance, a stillborn calf has to be cut apart while still in the womb to avoid killing the dame, a task accomplished by the use of the “Utrecht fetotome, which is basically two handles held together by a piece of thin wire.” The book has it charms, to be sure—e.g., the counterintuitive observation that despite their odor, skunks make good pets. Still, there are only so many variations on how a cow’s innards feel or on the best way to remove a massive tumor from an unfortunate Lab. Ultimately, this is a book best read not by civilian animal lovers, but by aspiring veterinarians looking for some hard truths about the attending challenges.

Heartfelt and authentic, if rather wooden in execution—no competition for James Herriot, Gerald Durrell and other animal-focused literary masters.

AMERICAN PULP How Paperbacks Brought Modernism to Main Street

Rabinowitz, Paula Princeton Univ. (440 pp.) $29.95 | Oct. 5, 2014 978-0-691-15060-4

How cheap books opened a world of ideas to new readers.

In the 1930s, British publisher Allen Lane established Penguin Books, the first line of inexpensive quality paperbacks. That successful venture migrated to the United States under the auspices of New American Library, which took as its logo Signet, alluding to another bird: cygnet, a baby swan. As Rabinowitz (English/ Univ. of Minnesota; Black & White & Noir, 2002, etc.) argues in this literary and cultural history, paperbacks became enormously popular from the 1930s to the early ’60s, creating a mass readership for titles that ranged from detective stories to acclaimed works by such writers as Henry James and Thomas Hardy. “The mechanism of pulping a work,” Rabinowitz writes, “entailed a process of redistribution or, more precisely, remediation: writings often created for an educated and elite audience took on new lives by being repackaged as cheap paperbacks.” Repackaging included cover illustrations, as well, some with bold depictions of sexuality or violence; others, with modernist art. Rabinowitz makes a persuasive case for the role of pulp in widening the landscape of Americans’ experience. During World War II, paperbacks

AN INDOMITABLE BEAST The Remarkable Journey of the Jaguar Rabinowitz, Alan Island Press (304 pp.) $30.00 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-59726-996-4

One of the world’s leading experts on big cats writes passionately on behalf of the beasts he loves.

As a child, Rabinowitz (Life in the Valley of Death: The Fight to Save Tigers in a Land of Guns, Gold, and Greed, 2007, etc.), cofounder and CEO of Panthera, a nonprofit organization dedicated to saving the world’s wild cats, discovered that he could communicate with jaguars at the Bronx Zoo. Since then, he has become a significant voice for the species. This is not merely |

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“Comprehensive research underlies this compelling, highly emotional and profoundly important story.” from a deadly wandering

were distributed to troops, both to boost morale and to “help develop readers from even those with limited education,” a strategy that created postwar demand. Among the most popular paperbacks were crime novels, which explored how “psychological and economic forces…collide in an individual.”

Rabinowitz examines in particular the impact of works by two black writers: Richard Wright, whose 12 Million Black Voices (1941) drew upon the genre of true confession magazines; and Ann Petry, whose Country Place (1947) dealt with “malice, calculation, infidelity, adultery, murder, sudden death, and a set of surprise bequests.” The author also considers assorted novels that served as “one of the rare mass avenues open to depicting lesbian relationships.

An ardent collector of pulp fiction, Rabinowitz brings to this scholarly study a passion for the genre and an authoritative analysis of its meaning in American culture.

(24 color illustrations; 42 halftones)

to decide that “the Mexican-American lives lost on California’s back-country roads were of little concern in Washington.”

Reynolds concludes that the high-profile prosecutions actually advanced their power: “With each new guilty verdict the gang branched out” within the federal prison system.

A sprawling, literary true-crime effort that will reward patient readers with its gloomy account of an unstoppable, violent subculture.

A DEADLY WANDERING A Tale of Tragedy and Redemption in the Age of Attention

Richtel, Matt Morrow/HarperCollins (320 pp.) $28.99 | Sep. 23, 2014 978-0-06-228406-8 978-0-06-228408-2 e-book 978-0-06-235076-3 Audiobook

BLOOD IN THE FIELDS Ten Years Inside California’s Nuestra Familia Gang

A novelist and Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter explores with nearly Javert-ian persistence one of the early cases of traffic fatalities caused by texting while driving.

On Sept. 22, 2006, college student Reggie Shaw, texting in his truck, veered into the oncoming lane on a narrow highway near Logan, Utah, and struck a car, knocking it into an approaching truck. Both men inside that car were rocket scientists with families, and both died. Richtel (Devil’s Plaything, 2011, etc.) begins his account with an MRI of Shaw’s brain (he returns to this scene near the end), then reports the crash in detail, following the story to its most recent legal and emotional conclusions (insofar as there can be conclusions). He alternates his focus throughout: from Shaw and his family, to the victims’ families, to the police and legal system, to the legislators considering texting laws, to the latest scientific research on how much we can possibly attend to in our incredibly distracting world (not nearly as much as we think). Readers will be alarmed to discover what science has learned about the dangers drivers create when they text or talk on the phone. The vast majority of us are just not capable of doing so safely. Richtel excels at bringing to life his cast of sundry characters. (Virtually everyone agreed to interviews.) Readers get to know Shaw’s parents, the widows, the daughters of the victims, the attorneys on both sides, a judge who keeps Les Misérables near at hand (and required Shaw to read it), a victims rights advocate, scientists and, of course, Shaw himself, who emerges as a modest young man (a devout Mormon), a young man who’d never before been in trouble, a young man who, we eventually realize, could be any one of us.

Comprehensive research underlies this compelling, highly emotional and profoundly important story.

Reynolds, Julia Chicago Review (368 pp.) $26.95 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-61374-969-2

Brisk, detailed exposé of the littleunderstood gang Nuestra Familia.

Monterey County Herald staff writer Reynolds, a recipient of Harvard’s Nieman Fellowship, spent 12 years covering the gang (including as co-producer and writer of a PBS documentary), and it shows in her intense, intimate approach: She begins abruptly, without much context regarding the unique nature of Latino gangs.

This one began in Northern California prisons in the 1960s as a rival to the powerful Mexican Mafia and has since gained territory via a street-level offshoot, the Norteños. Reynolds builds a long-term narrative focused on a volatile NF clique in Salinas, receiving orders from gang superiors allegedly isolated in the Pelican Bay Supermax prison. She personalizes this approach by utilizing the perspectives of a Mexican-American cop and several beleaguered gangsters, who became informants, accepted plea deals for violent felonies or were themselves victims of violence. Looking beneath their pseudo-revolutionary “Cause” (“a shallow and manipulative ideology”), she portrays a criminal conspiracy fusing cold business acumen, a corporate-style structure and vicious hatred for “Sureños” (Southern California Latinos). By the late 1990s, “the NF had blanketed the state and was now running regiments in every tiny [agricultural] town.”

However, the gang’s fortunes turned when then-U.S. Attorney Robert Mueller decided to pursue NF federally. Soon, even the crew’s higher-ups were cutting deals with the FBI, leading to one imprisoned teenage killer’s bitter conclusion: “The Cause… was nothing but generations of lies told to entice kids like him to do a few old guys’ dirty work.” Yet, after spawning a complex investigation, the feds desisted after 9/11, leading the local cops 68

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INTIMATE STRANGERS Arendt, Marcuse, Solzhenitsyn, and Said in American Political Discourse

DRIVING HONDA Inside the World’s Most Innovative Car Company

Rothfeder, Jeffrey Portfolio (320 pp.) $27.95 | Jul. 31, 2014 978-1-59184-473-0

Ritivoi, Andreea Deciu Columbia Univ. (320 pp.) $35.00 | $34.99 e-book | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-231-16868-7 978-0-231-53791-9 e-book

The story of one of the most innovative companies in the world: the automobile manufacturer that makes some of the best-selling and longest-lasting cars

A scholarly exercise imparting astute observations about the reception of immigrants and their enormous contributions to their adopted society.

Taking four very different “foreigners” in America, Ritivoi (English/Carnegie Mellon Univ.; Paul Ricoeur: Tradition and Innovation in Rhetorical Theory, 2006, etc.) delineates how each challenged the prevailing political discourse and even changed it for the better. In spite of the criticism and suspicion surrounding their “foreignness”—Hannah Arendt and Herbert Marcuse came from Germany, Alexander Solzhenitsyn from Russia, all three struggled with English, while Edward Said attended Harvard and inherited his Palestinian father’s U.S. citizenship— these four intellectuals had a profound, even prophetic effect on the “citizen ethos” that never quite accepted them. The four used what Ritivoi calls their “stranger persona” to generate original ideas and impart the vision of an impartial observer, desperately lacking in the rather closed-minded, self-congratulatory society that America had become after World War II. Although foreigners were welcomed as part of the founding myth of the country, and accepted, like Alexis de Tocqueville a century earlier, as “enlightened travelers,” the intellectuals who were forced here by oppression in their own countries were viewed with suspicion, considered arrogant and “undesirable.” Yet these four immigrants did not hesitate to use certain effective rhetorical devices in their writings to counter these tenacious “habits of exclusion.” For example, Arendt employed irony in Eichmann in Jerusalem (1963) to unsettle notions of sentimental patriotism; Marcuse used his revolutionary notoriety to forge political activism; Solzhenitsyn found in the jeremiad of his 1978 Harvard commencement address the vehicle with which to urge America to return to its founding greatness; Said used denunciation in Orientalism and elsewhere to underscore the hypocrisy of Western liberalism.

A finely argued contribution to the discussion of immigration, its decidedly scholarly bent notwithstanding.

on the road.

Superlatives aside, Honda’s record speaks for itself, and International Business Times editor in chief Rothfeder (McIlhenny’s Gold: How a Louisiana Family Built the Tabasco Empire, 2007, etc.) highlights the achievements of its founder, Soichiro Honda (1906-1991). In the United States, Honda remains at the pinnacle of the auto industry, with such iconic models as the Civic, Accord and Odyssey; 75 percent of the cars and trucks it manufactured over the last 25 years are still on the road. For skeptics, the author’s acknowledgments and the reference section detailing his sources will be helpful. In Rothfeder’s telling, Honda is a much different auto manufacturer than others. Unlike Toyota, for example, it is not organized as a top-down pyramid of control. Honda’s flat-type organization encourages local inputs. In Marysville, Ohio, technician Shubho Bhattacharya’s Intelligent Paint Technology reduced “energy usage in the paint shop by 25 percent” and was rapidly deployed globally to like effect. Unlike General Motors and Ford, Honda also builds its own machinery, and workers cooperate with engineers to configure production lines, as they did in Lincoln, Arkansas. There, the “line’s coiled shape” helped reduce its footprint and costs while providing a flexible assembly and quality-control capability. Soichiro Honda’s career as an innovator took off in the 1920s, when he patented a design for unbreakable cast-iron auto wheels, and continued through his mastery of the skills required to manufacture piston rings that could improve combustion engine performance. Since then, the company has led the way in engine development. As the founder said, “success can be achieved only through repeated failure and introspection. In fact, success represents one percent of your work, which results only from the ninety-nine percent that is called failure.”

A case study of the methods required to revive manufacturing industries.

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“Top-shelf instruction on the mechanics of the medical economy.” from the cost of cutting

THE COST OF CUTTING A Surgeon Reveals the Truth Behind a Multibillion-Dollar Industry

THE OPPORTUNITY EQUATION How Citizen Teachers Are Combating the Achievement Gap in America’s Schools

Ruggieri, Paul A. Berkley (320 pp.) $16.00 paper | Sep. 2, 2014 978-0-425-27231-2

Schwarz, Eric Beacon (248 pp.) $26.95 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-0-8070-3372-2

Surgeon Ruggieri (Confessions of a Surgeon: The Good, the Bad, and the Complicated…Life Behind the O.R. Doors, 2012) tutors readers on the economic forces that make the surgical theater tick.

Over the past 25 years, the author has seen much change in the practice of medicine: large strides in surgical procedures and tools and money’s ever greater sphere of influence. Ruggieri is a fine storyteller, which is a good thing, for although he peppers the book with dramatic anecdotes from his practice, his real exploration focuses on the financial side of the medical equation. Surgery is big business, the very lifeblood of hospitals and, as the author readily acknowledges, the surgeon’s as well. However, as various market forces come into play, the surgeon’s income is decreasing. Fifty million operations are performed annually in the United States, which raises the question of volume over quality. More to Ruggieri’s concern, however, “all this money carries with it power and influence. When it comes to medical decision making, power and influence are not what you want motivating your surgeon, your hospital, or your insurance company.” The introduction of diagnostic tools, like CAT and MRI scans, offers new medical information, often known as “incidental findings,” which contributes to the $150 billion in unnecessary surgical fees. Hospitals feel compelled to introduce the latest gadgetry, without demonstrated superiority, to appear market-friendly. Too many pressures blur the line between operating for love or money, though Ruggieri sees some obvious steps to be taken: Cut payments for poor-quality outcomes, cut reimbursement for elective surgery, and pay less for operations with dubious benefits. The author has much to say about the world of bullying in medicine—both patients and surgeons on the receiving end—as well as cautionary material on how providers will be reacting to the Affordable Care Act. Top-shelf instruction on the mechanics of the medical economy.

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An inside look at the Citizen Schools program.

From its inception to its current success, Schwarz gives readers a detailed history of the after-school program he founded in 1995. As a descendent of the FAO Schwarz toy store family, the author’s childhood “was piled high with the building blocks of opportunity.” Surrounded by high-achieving professional adults who formed a “powerful social network,” success was almost guaranteed due to the extra chances to learn and grow. Soon, Schwarz realized that not everyone had the same breaks in life, so he started the Citizen Schools program to help balance the equation. He sought to expose low-income students to mentoring, sports, art, music, and creative and innovative solutions to everyday problems. By extending the school day by three hours, hiring AmeriCorps teaching fellows and asking adult volunteers to help teach a variety of skills, Schwarz was able to implement his plan. Not only do the extra three hours provide a safe haven for children who might otherwise wind up on the streets, but the time also allows parents better access to information about their children since the citizen volunteers are able to make phone calls and conduct meetings that the full-time teachers don’t have time to do. Through personal stories and chronological notes, Schwarz shows the necessary steps he and his fellow workers use to implement changes in the way children are taught. He provides thorough analysis of the success he’s been able to achieve, including better test results, greater high school graduation rates and increased college acceptance rates. Straightforward and informational, Schwarz’s brief book is a call to action for citizens and educators so that the achievement gap can be closed as rapidly as possible.

Motivational information on how ordinary citizens can make a huge difference in the American educational system.

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THE THIEF-TAKER HANGINGS How Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Wild, and Jack Sheppard Captivated London and Created Scandal Journalism

BECOMING BELAFONTE Black Artist, Public Radical

Smith, Judith E. Univ. of Texas (320 pp.) $35.00 | Sep. 15, 2014 978-0-292-72914-8

Skirboll, Aaron Lyons Press (320 pp.) $26.95 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-0-7627-9148-4

The rise of the once-popular singer and actor (b. 1927) who used his celebrity and suasion to aid liberal causes.

Few books have a more accurate title and subtitle than this one. Smith (American Studies/Univ. of Massachusetts, Boston; Visions of Belonging: Family Stories, Popular Culture, and Postwar Democracy, 1940-1960, 2004, etc.) focuses sharply on Belafonte’s background: his boyhood in Harlem, early departure from high school, stint in the segregated U.S. Navy, experiences with Jim Crow (which outraged him) and eventual decision to become an actor in New York. Smith periodically reminds us of Belafonte’s friendship with singer/ actor/political activist Paul Robeson, who served as mentor for the young man and whom Belafonte continues to credit.

The author also shows how Belafonte, discouraged that there were so few acting opportunities for black performers, moved toward music, a career for which he’d had no formal training or real experience. But he had talent. He had colleagues and mentors ranging from Charlie Parker to folksingers of the 1940s and ’50s: Lead Belly, Josh White, Pete Seeger and others. As Smith points out repeatedly, Belafonte also had an electrifying stage presence and a steamy sexuality that soon rocketed him into popularity. He devoted himself to human rights causes throughout his career, using his celebrity and evincing no fear that he would hurt himself financially. He became an intimate of Martin Luther King Jr. and used his unusual (for the time) access to TV and movies to promote his agenda. Smith gives us plenty of detail about his movies (the good, bad and ugly), his recordings, his relationships with women, and his battles with the ugly racial status quo in 1950s and ’60s America.

So engaging that readers will crave a sequel: Belafonte since the ’70s? (38 b/w photos)

How the beginnings of true crime reporting and the birth of tabloid journalism can be tagged to Daniel Defoe’s years in prison for libelous sedition.

Generally eschewing troublesome political writing after his imprisonment, Defoe instead investigated and wrote about the lower orders, providing Skirboll (The Pittsburgh Cocaine Seven: How a Ragtag Group of Fans Took the Fall for Major League Baseball, 2010) with wonderful resources for this story of criminal Jonathan Wild (1682-1725) and escape artist Jack Sheppard (1702-1724). Wild learned the fine art of thievery while serving in debtors prison, and he learned it so well that he became the man thieves turned to for advice. It wasn’t long before Wild incorporated and set up his “Lost Property Office” advertising and selling stolen items back to their owners. Thieves who didn’t bring their goods to him, like Sheppard, were “apprehended” and often hanged, with Wild taking the reward; thus his title of “Thief-Taker.” Eventually, he broke up London’s largest gangs and had hundreds of thieves on his own list. Skirboll shows the lives and trials of Londoners from all classes. In the 18th century, the city had no official police department, and it was up to the victim to initiate the prosecution of wrongdoers. Defendants often received no counsel, and they also had to worry about the straw men, professional perjurers and unpunished crime. Though this is not a Defoe biography, his background and career producing pamphlets and newspapers are vital. “His writing propelled journalism into the future and gave us,” writes the author, “the celebrity criminal, the gossip column, investigative reporting, tabloid journalism, and the true crime drama.”

His exclusive interviews of felons in Newgate and other London prisons truly changed the face of journalism.

The daring cleverness of both Wild and Sheppard makes for fun historical reading. (b/w images)

THE EDUCATION OF A VALUE INVESTOR

Spier, Guy Palgrave Macmillan (224 pp.) $26.00 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-137-27881-4

Aquamarine Fund founder Spier, widely known for his shared victory in the 2007 auction of a lunch appointment with Warren Buffett, shows how the legendary investor from Omaha became an example, guide and mentor in his own journey to master the secrets of value investing. |

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“Steinberg takes a comprehensive approach as a researcher, parent, participant, observer and scientist.” from age of opportunity

Educated in economics at Oxford University and Harvard Business School, where he excelled, the author assumed he would transition smoothly into a fast-track career on Wall Street. However, Spier began with disillusionment. At his first job, he found the aroma of corruption unacceptable and left. Later, that company’s officers were indicted on 173 counts of stock fraud. The author escaped the worst, but he understood that he was “potentially teetering on the edge of a moral cliff.” He also began to realize that his education had not provided him with either the knowledge or practical skills to survive in the modern financial world. Consequently, Spier decided to build his own company, using Buffett as his model. Later, he established a friendship with another fan of Buffett’s investing methods, Mohnish Prabai, who shared the 2007 auction victory with Spier. The author writes that he learned an important lesson at that lunch. “Seeing him in person that day,” he writes, “I was left with no doubt at all that I could ever hope to match him.” But rather than competing with Buffett, Spier aimed to change his lifestyle and become the best he could be, beginning an “inner journey” for “true value” and meaning that goes beyond just making money. For the author, this includes philanthropy and generous donation to charities, including San Francisco’s Glide Memorial Church, favored by Buffett, and his friend Prabai’s Dakshana Foundation, which educates children in India.

A wide-ranging journey in which money isn’t everything, but it sure does seem to help.

was pushed to the most painful places. He was edgy, frustrated, whiny and looking for someone to blame. Then came the little triumphs: building a fire, catching rainwater, finding a tin can, caramelizing coconut, hunting down a goat, and learning to focus and be serene in the face of those things he was not able to change. Ultimately, he notes why the island is uninhabited: “NO BLOODY FRESH WATER. For certain parts of the year the island produces less water than can sustain one male adult.”

To be sure, some of Stafford’s mental baggage popped open during his latest crazy journey, but his chronicle is, on the whole, entertaining.

AGE OF OPPORTUNITY Lessons from the New Science of Adolescence

Steinberg, Laurence Eamon Dolan/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (272 pp.) $28.00 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-544-27977-3 Advice from developmental psychologist Steinberg (Psychology/Temple Univ.; The Ten Basic Principles of Good Parenting, 2004, etc.) on navigating and nurturing the adolescent mind.

Adolescence is the great betwixt and between, writes the author, a time when kids are both more and less mature than adults think—and we typically get both wrong—when the brain is undergoing substantial and systematic changes that will be critical in the maturation process. Steinberg takes a comprehensive approach as a researcher, parent, participant, observer and scientist. He includes both clinical reports and examples of how the indications of neuroscience play out in everyday life. The mechanics of adolescent development are fascinating enough—the plasticity of the brain; the reward, relationship and regulatory systems; the genetic and environmental influences on maturation; the tendency toward risk; the interplay between the prefrontal cortex and the limbic system—but this study will be gratefully received by many for its advice on how our increasing understanding of adolescent development can be put to practical use in helping adolescents through the emotional and behavioral tumult. Steinberg stresses the importance of self-control, encompassing “the strength of the emotion and our ability to manage it” and expressed, for instance, through risk taking, the peer effect and impulse control. Parents must provide a variety of things: warmth and firmness, support and consistency, praise and the freedom to investigate, protectiveness and permission. The author provides techniques to get involved on all these levels; though not blazingly original, they merit attention: physical activities, mindfulness, identifying endocrine disruptions and high-stress situations, fashioning tools to motivate determination and tenacity. Steinberg’s audience is as broad as his approach and includes parents, educators, politicians, businesspeople and health care professionals.

A clear and canny look into the adolescent brain that will help influence adolescent lives for the better.

NAKED AND MAROONED One Man. One Island.

Stafford, Ed Plume (320 pp.) $16.00 paper | Sep. 30, 2014 978-0-14-218096-9

Further tales from extreme adventurer Stafford (Walking the Amazon, 2011), European Adventurer of the Year in 2011.

The author’s latest is the stuff of nightmares: “No food, no equipment, no knife and not even any clothes.” Alone, on a remote island in the South Pacific. After his two-and-a-half-year ramble the length of the Amazon River, among traffickers, defensive locals and terrorists, what would be next? Greater duration was pointless, but as for in extremis, well, a couple months isolated on a South Pacific island, with absolutely no provisions—except for the video cameras that would record his days for the Discovery Channel—ought to do the trick. Stafford is a fit, adventure- and battle-tested, fairly normal and sociable man, so it came as little surprise that the isolation got to him. His story of those 60 days is raw and acrid, with all the pungency caught on tape clearly adding immediacy to the emotional wrench of the narrative.

His physical travails were hardly negligible—the lack of fresh water drove his blood pressure through the roof (as did almost any stressful thing); “coconut tasted like whale blubber, snails like gritty balls of phlegm”; “I woke up to sharp stomach cramps and explosive diarrhea on the beach”—yet it was his mind that 72

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FROM HOLOCAUST TO HARVARD A Story of Escape, Forgiveness, and Freedom

PUTTING EDUCATION TO WORK How Cristo Rey High Schools Are Transforming Urban Education

Stoessinger, John G. Skyhorse Publishing (176 pp.) $22.95 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-62914-652-2

Sweas, Megan HarperOne (224 pp.) $24.99 | Aug. 19, 2014 978-0-06-228801-1

Stoessinger (Global Diplomacy/Univ. of San Diego; Crusaders and Pragmatists: Movers of Modern American Foreign Policy, 1979, etc.) outlines his progress from childhood in Vienna on the brink of war to Prague, Shanghai, and finally, America and a taste of fame and fortune.

Though the author lost his grandparents to the gas chambers during the Holocaust, he escaped the worst of it, despite the implications of his book’s title. Stoessinger, his mother and stepfather, whom he despised, left Nazi Europe just in time.

The young émigré, with the help of caring strangers, attended Grinnell College. Soon, headed for the academic bright lights and Harvard, he left his wife in Iowa. In Cambridge, he associated with the likes of Zbigniew Brzezinski and Henry Kissinger and was eventually noticed as a rising political scientist.

Accepting a position at the United Nations, Stoessinger craved further fame and fortune. Despite a distinct fear of marriage, he married again, fathering a daughter. He was also attracted to a fetching world-class swindler. She was his lover for whom, at her instruction, he did many patently stupid favors, which resulted in an indictment as a participant in fraudulent activities. A plea bargain allowed the author to teach prisoners instead of serving time. Released from his marriage’s “banality,” he launched into another passionate liaison, but that didn’t thrive, either.

Stoessinger also purports to have been too affected to visit his mother as she endured Alzheimer’s. Though the author offers a few interesting anecdotes, he is often self-congratulatory and engages in excessive name-dropping. The text carries to excess the ration of pride generally granted memoirs, and his egotistical “hope to leave behind a spiritual legacy” to help mankind abandon war rings false.

A picaresque memoir that tells much less than all.

A markedly positive account of a growing network of high schools designed to help poor urban youth prepare for college.

Freelance journalist and former U.S. Catholic magazine editor Sweas produces a sequel to G.R. Kearney’s More Than a Dream (2008), which told the story of the first school in the network, Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Chicago. From that beginning in 1996, the Cristo Rey network now includes 28 college-prep schools in cities across the country. Although the schools are Catholic, students need not be, but they must be from low-income families. They are often minorities and are definitely behind in their studies. Besides serving the urban poor and disadvantaged, the system has been a lifesaver for Catholic high schools threatened by a shortage of once-available nun and priest teachers, higher costs and dropping enrollments. The Cristo Rey schools operate corporate work-study programs in which students work for local companies five days per month, an arrangement that brings in money for the school and introduces students to the world of work. Sweas uses the personal stories of students from various schools to illustrate how the system works and how the students view their experiences. To round out her portrait of the network, the author interviewed teachers, administrators, board members and corporate sponsors, nearly all of whom are glowing in their appraisals. Unfortunately, Sweas’ presentation often reads like a promotion piece for the network—e.g, while frequently mentioning that the schools have a 100 percent college acceptance rate, she omits data on how many students drop out of Cristo Rey high schools, how many actually attend what kind of college and what their college graduation rates are.

A rosy but incomplete picture that would be of greater value to educators if the author weren’t trying so hard to sell the system.

A HISTORY OF LIFE IN 100 FOSSILS

Taylor, Paul D.; O’Dea, Aaron Smithsonian Books (224 pp.) $34.95 | Oct. 14, 2014 978-1-58834-482-3

Not a history of life as much as a picture book with 100 beautiful photographs of fossils, each accompanied by a pagelong essay on its role in evolution. |

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Paleontologists Taylor (co-author: Fossil Invertebrates, 2005, etc.), who has worked for three decades at the Natural History Museum in London, and O’Dea, a staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, emphasize that a minuscule fraction of the bones, shells, teeth, stems and leaves of extinct life survives as fossils, and even fewer soft body parts, stomach contents, feces, eggs, embryos and nests. However, a minuscule fraction of trillions is still a superabundance, from which the authors have chosen the crème de la crème. Life began less than 1 billion years after the Earth cooled 4.5 billion years ago. The earliest life forms may resemble bacteria, and the book’s first photograph of rocks containing microscopic, branched filaments will impress general readers as examples of primitive life. Matters quickly improved, illustrated by the following photograph, a swirling mass of stromatolites, layered deposits of bacteria that spread over the oceans 3.5 billion years ago. They produced oxygen, which, after a few billion years, led to the explosion of complex, multicellular, oxygen-breathing organisms 600 million years ago. The following pictures reveal odd, soft-bodied floating blobs that evolved into creatures that crawled, swam, spread onto land a few hundred million years later, and developed into familiar reptiles, mammals and primates.

Despite the terrific photographs, the avalanche of information in the text may overwhelm beginners, who should read a genuine history of evolution—e.g., Richard Fortey’s Life (1998)—before dipping into this treasure trove. (110 color photos)

his middle school report card grades—but the pace and quality of the book pick up once it moves into Hartman’s adult life.

Readers will be entertained by learning the lesser-known facts about the beginning of his career—Hartman did a stint designing album covers for high-profile clients like Crosby, Stills & Nash for his brother’s production company—and the illustrative anecdotes of the Hollywood and New York comedy scenes in the 1980s and ’90s. While Thomas provides some clues about Hartman’s often guarded personality, large questions about his personal life and untimely death go unaddressed.

Thomas is intent on celebrating the talent and career of Hartman, but he offers little conclusive insight into what was all too clearly a troubled marriage. Fans will likely find it an entertaining but ultimately unsatisfying read.

RED NILE A Biography of the World’s Greatest River Twigger, Robert Dunne/St. Martin’s (480 pp.) $29.99 | Oct. 7, 2014 978-1-250-05233-9

A rich tapestry of Nile lore and legend, stretching from the ancients to the fall of the latest tyrant.

British author Twigger (Dr. Ragab’s Universal Language, 2009, etc.) lived in Cairo for seven years before fleeing the revolution in 2011. Here, the author compiles a vast compendium of drama and history around the attempts to control the Nile. Somewhat chronological but hardly linear, Twigger’s labor of love meanders, much like its subject. History itself began there, in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, from which emerged not one but three Niles: The Blue Nile rises in Ethiopia; the White in central Africa; and the mighty Red flowing from Lake Victoria (fed by the Kagera River coming down from the so-called Mountains of the Moon, which Twigger maintains is the Nile’s true source) to the Mediterranean Delta. Why is it red? That is the color of the silt, as well as the rare algal bloom known to turn the surface red and kill the fish, which might explain Egypt’s first plague: the “river of blood” Moses created when he struck the surface as dictated

by God. Nonetheless, red is the color of blood, life, violence, passion and revolution, and the Nile delivers each in turn. The earliest inhabitants of the areas around the river were huntergatherers who followed the river as the game roamed and probably gave their things away as they moved rather than hoarding what they could not carry. Especially fascinating is the lore surrounding the powerful and dangerous animals that haunt the river and were depicted by ancients as demigods: baboons, hippos and crocodiles. Indeed, the Nile gave birth not only to mad kings and caliphs, from Cleopatra to Hakim, Napoleon to Lord Kitchener, but the theory of blood circulation, understood by Ibn al-Nafis 400 years before William Harvey.

A painstaking work of research and careful observation. (8-page color photo insert)

YOU MIGHT REMEMBER ME The Life and Times of Phil Hartman Thomas, Mike St. Martin’s (336 pp.) $27.99 | Sep. 23, 2014 978-1-250-02796-2

An admiring, often granular report on the life and tragic death of comedian and Saturday Night Live veteran Phil Hartman (1948-1998), a man “adored by millions and slain in his prime.”

Chicago Sun-Times arts/entertainment writer Thomas (The Second City Unscripted: Revolution and Revelation at the WorldFamous Comedy Theater, 2009) uses a combination of previously published materials, police reports, letters, and firsthand interviews with family members and famous comedians—including Jay Leno and Julia Sweeney—to put together a chronological narrative of the life and murder of the beloved comedian. Hartman was the star of the NBC sitcom NewsRadio, the voice of several classic roles on The Simpsons and an eight-year veteran of SNL, where he was nicknamed “The Glue” for his versatility and skill at keeping the cast cohesive. At 49, Hartman was murdered in his sleep by his third wife, Brynn, who killed herself several hours later. Thomas begins with exhaustive quantitative details from Hartman’s childhood—such as a nearly full list of 74

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“A fever dream of darkly personal memories and musings from the shadowy corners of sexual violence and mental illness.” from my body is a book of rules

FOR GOODNESS SEX Changing the Way We Talk to Teens About Sexuality, Values, and Health

her mind and body (“chemical torture is the trade-off ”). In each creatively imagined chapter, the author delivers explicit insight into her life: a bibliography of influential books; reflections on her college years at the University of Maryland, where she conducted sexual habit studies and imbibed vodka-laced “liquid dinners”; the conundrum of obtaining a sexual education while in Catholic school; her hilariously footnoted Match.com online dating profile; and a harrowing medicine-cabinet glossary of her prescription “bipolar buffet.” Washuta then graphically describes her sexual escapades in Seattle, where she was able to “absorb every one-night stand into my body and keep it there.” Other sections find the author personally identifying with TV’s Law & Order, Kurt Cobain and Britney Spears. In alternating chapters, she discusses the internal and external impacts of her Indian heritage as a member of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe (“It took some time to get the hang of being simultaneously white and Indian”) and how being raped altered her sense of identity and exacerbated her bouts of bipolar disorder (“Before I knew I was bipolar, and could settle into that, I had the rape. It was bloody and violent and it was an injustice of the kind my ancestors knew”). In a reliably honest, original and frank fashion, Washuta’s ruminations lift the veil of her chronic (and highly medicated) bouts of mental illness to reveal the confused, frenetic and often traumatic reality of living with overwhelming bouts of depression and mania.

A fever dream of darkly personal memories and musings from the shadowy corners of sexual violence and mental illness.

Vernacchio, Al Harper Wave/HarperCollins (272 pp.) $25.99 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-06-226951-5 Straightforward advice on how to talk to teens about sex.

High school sexuality educator Vernacchio opens the door to his classroom and invites readers in for a closer look at the often awkward subject of teaching sex education to teens. Teens today receive many levels of information on the complex world of love, relationships and physical closeness via the Internet, all forms of media and their peers. However, that information is often incomplete or stresses abstinence only and doesn’t help foster a well-rounded, healthy approach to sexuality.

With frankness and earnestness, Vernacchio breaks down barriers and gives parents, educators and teens comprehensive, practical advice on all aspects of sex. He discusses the concept of using baseball as a metaphor for sexual activity, noting how this creates a skewed image—in part due to the gender assumptions it makes: “It sets up the idea that sex is a game and that there are opposing teams…it’s competitive. We’re not playing on the same team; we’re playing against each other—so someone wins, and someone loses.”

Instead, he tells his students to envision a new model for sexual activity based on the act of sharing a pizza, which encourages discussion, negotiation and is mutually satisfying to both parties involved. Vernacchio includes thorough analysis of gender identity, sexual orientation, body images, and the use of technology to communicate sexual ideas and desires. Included in each chapter are real questions posed by real students, with Vernacchio’s direct and honest responses, which offer more advice and encourage further discussion on the topic. By the time Vernacchio’s students finish his sexuality and society class, they are “confident, open, and more secure in themselves, and they know their values.” Readers will feel the same way after finishing this book.

An engaging, much-needed new approach to teaching children about the human sexual experience.

SEASON OF SATURDAYS A History of College Football in 14 Games

Weinreb, Michael Scribner (272 pp.) $25.00 | Aug. 19, 2014 978-1-4516-2781-7

A passionate defense of college football, “a sport that often defies rational sense.”

Sports on Earth writer Weinreb (The Kings of New York: A Year Among the Geeks, Oddballs, and Geniuses Who Make Up America’s Top High School Chess Team, 2007) reviews the events and history of 10 significant games he believes have shaped college football and identifies issues that remain as hotly debated since the game’s inception in the late 1800s.

Since the beginning, college football’s old guard railed against a changing, more progressive culture (Weinreb’s profile of Ohio State’s reactionary head coach Woody Hayes is especially edifying), such as the invention of the forward pass in 1895, the integration of Southern schools in the 1960s, and the dogged opposition to a playoff system to definitively crown a national champion, relying instead on “a perpetual argument” that both engaged and enraged fans for decades. (What Weinreb calls the sport’s “ultimate irresolvability” will come to an end with the 2014 season, when the four-team playoff system will begin.) Even as far back as 1905, the sport’s governing body questioned whether students should be paid. Weinreb’s descriptions of the characters and plays in many

MY BODY IS A BOOK OF RULES A Memoir

Washuta, Elissa Red Hen Press (224 pp.) $16.95 paper | Aug. 12, 2014 978-1-59709-969-1

A candid, autobiographical scrapbook from a young woman navigating manic depression.

In her forthright debut, Washuta intimately chronicles her ongoing struggle with the triple threat of a 2005 sexual assault, bipolar disorder, and the powerful antipsychotic medication prescribed to balance |

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BEFORE THE FIRST SHOTS ARE FIRED How America Can Win or Lose Off the Battlefield

games in the latter half of the century are engaging and often very funny, and his recollections of his beloved hometown Penn State Nittany Lions are sentimental without being mawkish. His style is cheeky and humorous throughout, though some of his references will go over the heads of readers who are not pop-culture savvy.

These readers will be baffled by the author’s calling an especially pompous and pious coach as “more Yeezus than Jesus” and exasperated when he describes the mascot of the cocksure Miami Hurricanes as resembling “a sleazed-out Howard the Duck after a night of Courvoisier.”

Humor missteps aside, this is entertaining and enlightening for both rabid fans and newbies.

Zinni, Tony; Koltz, Tony Palgrave Macmillan (256 pp.) $27.00 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-137-27938-5

A retired four-star Marine Corps general examines how wars can be lost before they’ve even begun.

In his latest collaboration with co-author Koltz (Leading the Charge: Leadership Lessons from the Battlefield to the Boardroom, 2009, etc.), Zinni brings his five decades of military experience to bear and draws on lessons from past wars to set out vital preconditions for successful military intervention. No matter the provocation for war, we must respond first with sound analysis.

Intelligence experts must not only gather the pertinent data and define the problem, but also provide the context necessary for sound decision-making. Second, responsible executives must look at all the options, the policy implications and consequences of any decision. Here, styles may vary—Zinni cites Eisenhower and Truman as models—and depend on a variety of factors, but the president must find a way to fully comprehend the implications of any decision to use force. Third, we must design and implement a dynamic strategy that synchronizes the efforts of our political leadership, policy developers and operational commanders. Throughout, Zinni touches on a variety of topics: the critical role played by any secretary of defense (thumbs up for William Cohen, down for Donald Rumsfeld); the need for strong legal, ethical and moral grounds anchoring any narrative arguing for war; the fashioning of a military force adaptable to the mission; the proper role of contractors, the National Guard and Reserves; the necessity of meritocratic selection of combat leaders; the need for overhauling national security structures, some of which date back to the 1940s; the need to update our regional and global partnerships; and the importance of words and ideas, “the battle of the narrative,” to accomplishing our goals. If today’s wars too often “end” not in victory but instead with an exasperated, “How the hell did we get here?” it’s likely due to the fact that we have ignored too many of the issues Zinni raises.

A useful guide for anticipating the complexities of the modern battlefield.

DR. JOHN HARVEY KELLOGG AND THE RELIGION OF BIOLOGIC LIVING

Wilson, Brian C. Indiana Univ. (264 pp.) $35.00 | $34.99 e-book | Sep. 3, 2014 978-0-253-01447-4 978-0-253-01455-9 e-book

A well-researched biography that seeks to restore the reputation of the doctor satirized in T.C. Boyle’s novel The Road to Wellville (1993) and in the film of the same name.

Wilson (Comparative Religion/Western Michigan Univ.; Yankees in Michigan, 2008, etc.) has done much more than provide a sympathetic biography of the man who headed the once-famous Battle Creek Sanitarium, the name John Harvey Kellogg (1852-1943) gave to the Seventh-Day Adventist’s Western Health Reform Institute when he became its director in 1876. While the author fully explores the doctor’s role there, more important is his examination of the conflicts among various schools of religious, philosophical and scientific thought in the United States at the time. Kellogg struggled to reconcile the science he had learned as a doctor with the teachings of his church; ultimately, his deviation from church doctrines led to his expulsion. Believing that the purity of the body was as important for salvation as the purity of the soul, he developed the concept of biologic living, the rules for which he spelled out in detail in various books and promoted at the sanitarium. The first rule: “Obedience to the laws of life and health is a moral obligation.” Among his many precepts was the forgoing of meat. He taught that since the abandonment of vegetarianism in Eden, the human race has been sliding into decline, manifested by the short life span of modern men. In time, Kellogg became increasingly concerned over what he saw as the threat of race degeneration, devoting the last 30 years of his life to eugenics, the so-called science of improving the human race by controlling heredity. Wilson demonstrates convincingly where Kellogg’s ideas about health reform originated and how they evolved.

There’s much here to interest both adherents to and skeptics of today’s alternative and holistic medicines, as well as fans of American history, especially the history of religions.

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THE LONELY TYPEWRITER

These titles earned the Kirkus Star:

Ackerman, Peter Illus. by Dalton, Max Godine (32 pp.) $16.95 | Aug. 1, 2014 978-1-56792-518-0

HE LAUGHED WITH HIS OTHER MOUTHS by M.T. Anderson; illus. by Kurt Cyrus...............................................................................79 BURIED SUNLIGHT by Molly Bang; Penny Chisholm; illus. by Molly Bang............................................................................. 80 THE SECRETS OF EASTCLIFF-BY-THE-SEA by Eileen Beha........... 82 WEDNESDAY by Anne Bertier............................................................83 FLASHLIGHT by Lizi Boyd................................................................. 86 THE WAY TO THE ZOO by John Burningham....................................87 FIREBIRD by Misty Copeland; illus. by Christopher Myers...............91 THE STORM WHALE by Benji Davies............................................... 92 ON THE WING by David Elliott; illus. by Becca Stadtlander........... 99 THE KEY THAT SWALLOWED JOEY PIGZA by Jack Gantos.........100 SPARKERS by Eleanor Glewwe........................................................101 VANILLA ICE CREAM by Bob Graham.............................................102 LOVE IS THE DRUG by Alaya Dawn Johnson..................................108 DEAR WANDERING WILDEBEEST by Irene Latham; illus. by Anna Wadham....................................................................... 111

When a family computer goes kaput, a famous, but forgotten, typewriter comes to the rescue.

Once upon a time, the story starts, there was a typewriter: “Its pale yellow keys were held up by crooked metal elbows. Its gleaming silver arm stuck out like it wanted to shake your hand.”

The typewriter has an impressive history: Its owner, Pearl, typed pamphlets for Martin Luther King on it, and her daughter, Penelope, used it to type a book for which she won a poetry prize. Years later when the computer moves in, the typewriter is relegated to an attic shelf. Then, one day Penelope’s son, Pablo, must write a paper about penguins for school. He doesn’t want to do it, and in a delightfully funny Give-a-Mouse-a-Cookie vein, one play activity leads to another until it’s after dinnertime. He buckles down, completes his research, is poised to write and then—his father’s computer freezes, and he’s sunk. But his mother digs out the cobweb-covered typewriter from the attic; Pablo, puzzled, asks where the screen is and how to plug it in. She explains how it works, and before long, he’s happily clickety-clacking away on it.

This is a lovely, full-circle kind of story, related in bouncy writing characterized by gently percussive onomatopoeia, with expressive, appropriately retro illustrations in muted colors. Though it figures little in the plot, it’s heartening to see via the illustrations that the story involves a multiracial family.

A historic typewriter saves the day—and might even be around to stay. (Picture book. 5-8)

EGG & SPOON by Gregory Maguire................................................. 113

GHOST HOUSE

Adornetto, Alexandra Harlequin Teen (320 pp.) $17.99 | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-373-21130-2 Series: Ghost House Saga, 1

AS RED AS BLOOD by Salla Simukka..............................................124 BEETLE BOY by Margaret Willey......................................................129 BROWN GIRL DREAMING by Jacqueline Woodson.......................... 130

Chloe’s family is reeling from her mother’s sudden death. At the same time, Chloe realizes that her childhood ability to see ghosts has returned.

To deal with their grief, Chloe and her little brother, Rory, are sent to their grandmother’s English estate. It’s more than a culture shock for Chloe: It exposes her to a great number of ghosts—like the |

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john mason: prizefighter Photo by Lucy Weaver

Sylvester Stallone he was not.

Even so, the silver-haired gentleman darted through the banquet hall to the theme from Rocky, clad in an impossibly shiny, red boxing robe and jabbing at the air. And when he got to the microphone, we heard a distinctly English accent that was nothing like Rocky Balboa’s. It was John Mason in one of his trademark star turns as emcee of Scholastic’s dinner for librarians at the 2014 midwinter meeting of the American Library Association in Philadelphia.

As director of educational and library marketing for Scholastic Books, John is possibly the best-known publishing professional among teachers and librarians serving youth. And now, after 28 years at Scholastic and 43 in publishing, John has decided to hang up his boxing gloves and enter retirement.

That Rocky turn was just one of John’s stunts—“What will he do next year?” we’d ask ourselves upon leaving each event—but it has stuck with me more than any other because John Mason it seems so fitting. Although he does not physically look much like a prizefighter, his promotion and defense of his books could be positively pugilistic. As children’s and teen editor of Kirkus Reviews, not known for its soft touch with books, I have gone many a round with John over reviews he felt hit below the belt. Though never pugnacious (he is an Englishman), he always came out swinging.

Like the best kind of adversary, though, John has an immense capacity for kindness. When Kirkus’ former owner, Nielsen Business Media, announced the cessation of its publication, John was the first to call me, just to reach out. As I reeled in my corner, he was there to support me.

Have a great retirement, John. I’ll miss my sparring partner.

—Vicky Smith

handsome, charming Alexander Reade, dead for over 150 years.

Their immediate connection provokes vengeance from Isobel, Alex’s love and fellow ghost. Isobel sees Chloe as a threat, not just because of Alex’s interest, but because of the living girl’s supernatural ability. Chloe doesn’t want any of this, but when Isobel strikes out at Rory and Chloe’s new friend, Joe, not to mention dozens of innocent bystanders, Chloe will have to take a stand— even if it means losing Alex. Chloe’s voice is rarely convincing, and other characters are one-dimensional and inconsistent. Plot inconsistencies and pedestrian prose are likely to deter all but the most persistent paranormal-romance fans.

Even a great idea can be sunk by poor characterization and plotting; this has a standard idea, which makes the poor execution all the more obvious. (Paranormal romance.

12-16)

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

Alender, Katie Point/Scholastic (320 pp.) $18.99 | $18.99 e-book | Sep. 30, 2014 978-0-545-63997-2 978-0-545-63998-9 e-book Willa uses her mysterious ability to communicate with the beyond to track a murdering psychopath.

After moving to Los Angeles with her mother and stepdad, Willa discovers a ghostly presence haunting their new home. The local news is consumed with reports of a serial killer stalking up-and-coming actresses, and it doesn’t take long for Willa to figure out that their specter is one of the butcher’s victims. It’s a clever premise, and the whodunit fails in only one aspect: It’s incredibly obvious who did it. Once the killer is introduced as an ancillary character, even novice detectives will be able to point and cry, “Guilty!” Luckily, the characters and their investigation more than make up for this. The procedural elements are wellexecuted and complemented by characters that readers will truly come to care about and a romance that resonates. Alender enhances the mystery by setting it in Hollywood, a town where no one is quite who they seem to be. The result is a mystery that’s worth it for the chase if not for its conclusion.

A compelling supernatural thriller. (Paranormal mystery.

12-16)

Vicky Smith is the children’s & teen editor at Kirkus Reviews.

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“Above all, this is a testament to the art of reading, a book that reminds you why you love reading in the first place.” from he laughed with his other mouths

THE AFTERMATH

Alexander, Jen Harlequin Teen (304 pp.) $17.99 | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-373-21132-6 Series: Aftermath, 1 In a world where reports of violence have become all too commonplace, life is no longer about building a future; it’s about surviving the day.

Claudia knows something’s not right.

Life in post-apocalyptic Nashville is hard. She and her crew have to fight for every scrap of food, every drop of water and whatever shelter they can find. Even so, she finds herself questioning her actions: Just why does she do one thing when her head is telling her to do something entirely different? It isn’t until she is knocked out by a stranger on a raid that she realizes her sixth sense is awakening to a new awareness…she’s being played. The world she’s living in is someone else’s game, and she’s just a character being pushed from one level to the next. Her nightmares aren’t nightmares—they’re memories of a real life that exists outside the game. A stranger named Declan offers her a deal that might help her escape, but can he be trusted? This debut novel reads like a video game, as it is meant to. With an interesting premise and a few likable characters, the tone remains dark and intriguing, Claudia’s present-tense narration appropriately gritty.

Alexander closes with a cliffhanger ending that leaves readers wanting more; here’s hoping the world she’s built sustains multiple volumes. (Science fiction. 14 & up)

expresses all the pleasures of being young and getting lost in the realms of a great book. The novel doesn’t transcend the wacky sci-fi of old that inspired it but rather embraces it and dissects it, celebrating it and exploring why so many people fell in love with these silly worlds and gee-whiz heroes in the first place. Above all, this is a testament to the art of reading, a book that reminds you why you love reading in the first place.

Layered, beautiful, smart and achingly funny. In a word, brilliant. (Science fiction. 12-16)

HE LAUGHED WITH HIS OTHER MOUTHS

Anderson, M.T. Illus. by Cyrus, Kurt Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster (304 pp.) $17.99 | $10.99 e-book | Aug. 5, 2014 978-1-4424-5110-0 978-1-4424-5115-5 e-book Series: Pals in Peril, 6 The thrills continue as Jasper Dash, Boy Technonaut, goes into the deepest regions of space in search of his long-lost father.

Jasper is joined by Katie Mulligan and Lily Gefelty for another absurd adventure through time and space. This time, Jasper’s teleporter takes them deep within the Horsehead Nebula, the area of space that contains the secret of Jasper’s origins. Mysterious extraterrestrials travel the globe, abducting random civilians to ask them one question: “Where is Jasper Dash?” Meanwhile, in the footnotes, young Busby Spence reads classic Jasper Dash adventure novels and longs for the return of his own father, fighting in the Pacific theater during World War II. Anderson’s creative mixture of otherworldly adventure and heartfelt emotion is flawless. Nostalgic, hopeful and most importantly playful, the author has crafted a work that |

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“Bang’s edge-to-edge art in rich blues and greens is stippled with color suggesting, variously, energy in sunlight, microscopic life and the release of carbon gases. ” from buried sunlight

BREAKING BUTTERFLIES

Anjelais, M. Chicken House/Scholastic (272 pp.) $17.99 | $17.99 e-book | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-545-66766-1 978-0-545-66767-8 e-book A young woman is inexplicably compelled to stay with her terminally ill childhood best friend during his last days, despite years of estrangement that resulted after he sliced open her cheek

with a switchblade.

Cadence and Sphinx’s relationship was preordained by their mothers, also long-standing best friends, who fantasized as young girls that they would grow up to have children who’d marry as adults. Though Sphinx is drawn to Cadence’s intelligence and creativity, she is also increasingly aware that he has a personality disorder. After he cuts Sphinx, he is moved away to England, and it’s only when he’s diagnosed with leukemia as a teenager that Sphinx and her mother travel to see him again and unbelievably, Sphinx persuades her mother to let her stay.

Cadence is frequently described as “shining,” but it may be hard for readers to understand his power over Sphinx—their interactions are notable for his cruel outbursts rather than any charisma. Sphinx is likewise underdeveloped; she seems to exist mainly in reaction to Cadence and routinely dismisses herself: “Empathy, perhaps, was my only talent—I never showed very much promise in any other areas.”

In the end, this sensational and troubling story about a young woman’s relationship with a sociopath lacks emotional resonance. (Fiction. 14-18)

MY BROTHER’S SHADOW

Avery, Tom Schwartz & Wade/Random (176 pp.) $16.99 | $9.99 e-book | $19.99 PLB Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-385-38487-2 978-0-385-38489-6 e-book 978-0-385-38488-9 PLB A gritty middle-grade story about suicide’s aftermath.

It has been a year since 11-year-old Kaia’s older brother, Moses, killed himself by slitting his wrists.

It was Kaia who found him, and since that day she has been “frozen,” unable to move forward in her life—until she sees a mysterious, ragged boy in her school. The boy doesn’t speak, but he and Kaia become friends anyway, and he gradually leads her back to growth. With Kaia’s first-person narration, Avery paints an uncomfortable portrait of a child overcome by trauma, existing almost wholly within her damaged psyche. Readers may wonder at Kaia’s lack of external support—her mother is drinking herself into oblivion, her teacher exhibits not empathy but impatience, and her former friends ignore or bully her.

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Another off-key note is Kaia’s lack of anger toward Moses, who visits her in the guise of an angel. She seems to accept his suicide even as she can’t process it. It’s hard to tell whether the author is underscoring Kaia’s loose grip on reality or whether these are plot-credibility issues—the answer probably lies with individual readers. However, by the end of the story, everything wraps up pat, undercutting the story’s realism but providing welcome relief.

Save this disquieting tale for sophisticated readers who have a high tolerance for both ambiguity and distress.

(Fiction. 10-13)

IF KIDS RULED THE WORLD

Bailey, Linda Illus. by Huyck, David Kids Can (32 pp.) $16.95 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-55453-591-0

From the expected to the surreal, Bailey imagines a world where kids make the rules.

Of course, every day would be your birthday, and of course, birthday cake would be good for you. You’d never have to make your bed, and if you wanted to travel, just take a pirate ship—or a rocket! In a world where kids decide what is best, Bailey presumes that everyone would want to be a prince or a princess and own a pet kangaroo, elephant or grizzly bear. Baths would not be mandatory, and you could wear whatever you want, even underwear on your head. Most of the suppositions are fairly mundane, but a few inventive moments sneak in—such as, all the sidewalks would be trampolines. The narrative’s final effort at justifying these silly, high-spirited rules is to say that “no one would ever forget how to / PLAY! / No way!” Huyck’s detailed, digital illustrations stretch the light tone even farther. Kids of all ethnicities crowd the pages, often in separate, humorous vignettes tucked within the backgrounds.

The reminder to play at all ages is important, but one wishes if kids did rule the world there might be an element of idealism as well, not just whimsy. (Picture book. 3-6)

BURIED SUNLIGHT How Fossil Fuels Have Changed the Earth

Bang, Molly; Chisholm, Penny Illus. by Bang, Molly Blue Sky/Scholastic (48 pp.) $18.99 | Sep. 30, 2014 978-0-545-57785-4 Series: Sunlight

This fourth in Chisholm and Bang’s series about the sun’s relationship to life on Earth explores its ancient stores of fossil fuels and the effect of intense and rapid consumption of these in recent human history.

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The sun’s first-person voice puts readers at the center: “Yes, living things—including YOU—need energy to stay alive and grow.” The explanation begins with plants and moves concisely through photosynthesis and the use of the resulting carbon chains and animal production of carbon dioxide. Bang’s edgeto-edge art in rich blues and greens is stippled with color suggesting, variously, energy in sunlight, microscopic life and the release of carbon gases. Reds and yellows convey the heat of the sun as well as that of cities and deserts. This lively diagram of the relationships among plant and animal, sunlight, CO2 production and the Earth’s “blanket” of atmosphere is pitched to somewhat older readers than the earlier books. The result of the relatively sudden excess of CO2 on what was formerly an ebb and flow of warmth and cooling is direct. “ ‘SO WHAT?’ some people say. / SO THIS:” precedes the description of how and why more heat is trapped under the Earth’s blanket and what climate changes are now being seen. Abundant backmatter provides a more detailed explanation of the science introduced earlier.

Gorgeous illustrations and impressive, urgent scientific explanation. (Nonfiction.7-12)

THE ZERO DEGREE ZOMBIE ZONE

Bass, Patrik Henry Illus. by Craft, Jerry Scholastic (144 pp.) $16.99 | $16.99 e-book | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-545-13210-7 978-0-545-67549-9 e-book Four African-American fourth-graders have to lay aside their quarrels to save the Earth from an invasion of icy zombies.

Storywise, Bass doesn’t try for anything complicated or, for that matter, particularly logical. Having dropped a very important ring in the halls of Thurgood Cleavon Wilson Elementary, giant ice king Zenon threatens nerdy narrator Bakari Katari Johnson with a planetary invasion to get it back. Bakari is mystified until he spots the ring on the finger of classmate Keisha, mouthy mouthpiece for smug all-star athlete/teachers’ pet Tariq.

It all sets off a round of squabbles and hall and lunchroom

THE LAST KING OF ANGKOR WAT

Base, Graeme Illus. by Base, Graeme Abrams (36 pp.) $17.95 | Sep. 16, 2014 978-1-4197-1354-5

Four boastful Asian animals learn a lesson in humility.

Cambodia’s Angkor Wat was once known as the “City of Temples.” Gibbon, Tiger, Water Buffalo and Gecko laze near a temple ruin together. Each posits that he would be a superior king; this speculation turns into a challenge and, ultimately, a race to the top of their mountain. Tiger gets off to a quick start, neatly avoiding a menacing snake but ignoring a beautiful crane with a broken wing. Not far behind, Gibbon also encounters the snake, now tangled in branches, and helps to free him.

When Gibbon tires, he hitches a ride on a slow-moving pangolin. When Water Buffalo comes upon the snake, he’s filled with fear and decides to take the long way up, around the big swamp.

Gecko has no trouble zigzagging past the serpent. When the four animals reach the top, they’re surprised to find Elephant waiting for them. He recounts the exploits of each; none has the qualities that make a king, he says, citing their actions during the race. The quartet leaves together, pondering all that Elephant has said. This simple morality tale is lifted to loveliness by Base’s gorgeous digital illustrations, majestic and richly colored, filled with characteristic detail and intricately bordered.

These pages beckon readers to return again and again to pore over the details. (author’s note) (Picture book. 4-8)

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THE SECRETS OF EASTCLIFF-BY-THE-SEA The Story of Annaliese Easterling & Throckmorton, Her Simply Remarkable Sock Monkey

fracases with shambling zombie minions, a visit to Zenon’s icy dimension, and finally a bit of magic using the ring and a special marble that Bakari just happens to have from his granddad to close the gates to the Zombie Zone forever. Along with Bakari’s chubby best friend, Wardell, the young folk go from enemies to allies by the end. Craft tucks in lots of fluidly drawn scenes featuring purse-lipped students with oversize heads, jagged-edged attackers and the aforementioned ring in action.

Rote of plot and themes but with a (human) cast that does address a definite lack in the largely lily-white throngs of middle-grade fantasies. (Fantasy. 9-11)

TELL ME

Bauer, Joan Viking (272 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 16, 2014 978-0-451-47033-1 A 12-year-old girl sees something suspicious and determinedly pursues it.

Bauer’s story initially runs along a relationship-oriented slice-of-life track: A girl with a father having anger management issues is sent to stay with her grandmother and must cope with new people and challenges in a strange community. Then, about a quarter of the way through, bang, the novel abruptly changes directions. Anna McConnell, Bauer’s tense, emotionally overwrought yet capable protagonist, sees—or thinks she sees—something troubling: a young girl being controlled or even imprisoned by a couple in a van.

One would think that kind of circumstance would speed up the action and make the material more suspenseful, but paradoxically, it has the opposite effect. Despite the fact that the information Anna has isn’t definitive enough for the local police to do much, the people around Anna, including an adult who also thought the group was suspicious, are beyond supportive. Readers hear that it’s good Anna was the one who saw it, because she “won’t let it go,” that she’s “helping so much,” is “a smart, discerning girl,” “amazing” and “fierce,” among other things. Nothing is left to the imagination: not Anna’s overparsed analysis of her on-the-nose feelings nor Bauer’s relentless hammering of the theme.

An intriguing story idea is marred by a surfeit of telling.

(Fiction. 10-15)

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Beha, Eileen Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster (288 pp.) $16.99 | $10.99 e-book | Aug. 26, 2014 978-1-4424-9840-2 978-1-4424-9842-6 e-book

This original, heartwarming and highly amusing tale about lovely, lonely Annaliese is related by Annaliese’s sock monkey, Throckmorton S. Monkey. (The “S.” stands for “Sock.”)

All of her nine years, Annaliese has lived with her father, her twin brothers, a kind cook and a nasty, fish-smelling maid in a crumbling mansion by the sea. She does not remember her long-gone mother, and her father has forbidden the topic.

As the story opens, Annaliese is excited about party invitations that have arrived for her family’s sock monkeys and their keepers. As Annaliese’s father explains to the latest governess: “Whenever a baby is born into the family, Great-Grandmama Easterling makes a sock monkey.” The old woman herself is hosting the lavish party-cum–family reunion for her 90th birthday on Valentine’s Day, and before the day arrives, Annaliese and Throckmorton suddenly learn more and more secrets about Annaliese’s mother. As the story proceeds unerringly to the tidying of every loose end, readers will enjoy such spectacles as the Grand March of sock monkeys and keepers and the mayhem that follows. Throckmorton’s careful observations of human nature, coupled with his inability to move freely, add a pleasing, fresh dimension.

This unusual novel is old-fashioned in the best sense of the word, conveying universal truths and values through the use of sentient toys. (Fantasy. 7-11)

THE ANGEL TREE

Benedis-Grab, Daphne Scholastic (256 pp.) $16.99 | $16.99 e-book | Sep. 30, 2014 978-0-545-61378-1 978-0-545-61389-7 e-book This quick tale of generosity is as warm and simple as a Christmas postcard.

As the calendar counts down to Christmas in the idyllic little town of Pine River, four children hang their wishes on the Angel Tree, a tradition in which an anonymous benefactor and the close-knit residents pool their resources to help one another. The kids are sugar-cookie cutouts: Lucy, a timid blind girl whose family can’t afford her guide dog’s cancer treatment; class clown Max, who lost his house in a fire; Joe, “the most hated kid in Pine River,” whose only parent—a Marine— can’t be home for Christmas; and Cami, a violinist who can’t

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“Emotionally, the ups and downs of a day with a friend will ring true for young children. ” from wednesday

seem to make her grandmother proud. When the kids’ wishes are granted, Cami decides that they should work together to find “GB”—the “Great Benefactor” who started the tradition— to say thanks. Questioning kindly adults, the kids learn confidence and tolerance as they discover the story behind the tree.

Mentions of cellphones and Harry Potter DVDs feel almost anachronistic against Pine River’s folksy charm. The kids seem younger than they are, and their dialogue often sounds unrealistic, but their innocence might appeal to readers who want a winter break from typical middle school drama.

A light holiday read with little mystery or development but a lot of happy endings. (Fiction. 8-11)

REMEMBER ME

Bernard, Romily HarperTeen (368 pp.) $17.99 | $9.99 e-book | Sep. 23, 2014 978-0-06-222906-9 978-0-06-222908-3 e-book Wicket Tate returns, her happily-everafter ending from Find Me (2013) disintegrating into troubles with police detective Carson, boyfriend Griff, and new pal and fellow hacker Milo.

She’s got family troubles too: Her foster mother is sticking with her even though she exposed her foster father as a rapist and thug, but it’s taking a toll. A little bit of private skullduggery at a political event turns complicated when the gruesomely murdered body of a girl is found, and Wick becomes involved. The layering of motivations and actions should provide intrigue and suspense, but it often ends up being confusing. With so many red-herring trails to follow, it’s impossible to determine whether the many people attempting to control and direct Wick’s actions are benevolent or just using her. This seems to be a middle muddle of a trilogy entry, as a third title is clearly indicated at the end. Wick is represented as an expert hacker, but most of her attempts to get information involve impersonation, theft, and breaking and entering rather than computer know-how. Despite the introduction of a second possible beau, even the romance turns tepid, though the body count continues to climb.

Reserve this for dedicated fans of the first book.

(Suspense. 12-16)

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THE SCANDALOUS SISTERHOOD OF PRICKWILLOW PLACE

Berry, Julie Roaring Brook (368 pp.) $15.99 | Sep. 23, 2014 978-1-59643-956-6

When an overbearing headmistress and her odious brother drop dead, seven Victorian schoolgirls decide to run their school without adult interference.

It’s an ordinary Sunday dinner at Saint Ethelreda’s School for Young Ladies until Mrs. Plackett and Mr. Aldous Godding choke on their veal and fall over, dead as a pair of unpleasant doornails. All of the seven students at Saint Ethelreda’s, from Dull Martha to Dour Elinor, are horrified at the notion of their inevitable separation. Once they tell the authorities about Mrs. Plackett’s death, surely they will all be sent back home to their dreadful families and shunted off to far worse schools. All seems lost until Smooth Kitty asks the others, what if they just don’t tell the authorities about their headmistress’s untimely demise?

What follows is classic farce, as the young ladies spend the rest of that evening desperately hiding the corpses and their headmistress’s absence from an unprecedented stream of callers.

Stout Alice is disguised as Mrs. Plackett, Disgraceful Mary Jane initiates the garden gravedigging, and Pocked Louise helpfully adopts a puppy. A third of the way through the novel, the breakneck shenanigans abruptly settle, becoming merely the backdrop of a fairly classic drawing-room mystery. The young ladies are charming and their problem-solving ingenious, though the epithets used to describe them—it is never “Roberta,” always “Dear Roberta”—get old very quickly.

Droll farce yields to intriguing mystery, leaving the seams between them showing. (Farce/mystery. 11-13)

WEDNESDAY

Bertier, Anne Illus. by Bertier, Anne Translated by Bedrick, Claudia Zoe Enchanted Lion Books (48 pp.) $17.95 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-59270-152-0 In the tradition of Leo Lionni’s Little Blue and Little Yellow (1959), this French import uses geometric shapes, color and size to explore compatibility and conflict.

Big Square and Little Round play a game every Wednesday: “As soon as one of them says a word, they transform themselves into it.” Despite a few awkward turns of phrase, the narrative proceeds effectively. The blue square breaks apart to form a butterfly and a flower; the orange circle imitates the poses but displays its own curvaceous style. When the square gets carried away in pursuit of ever larger goals (a pine tree, a house), the circle retreats to a corner. It eventually crosses the gutter and reaches out to its friend with the idea of working together. They make a clown’s

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“[The] Adobe Photoshop illustrations are bold and playful, appropriately reminiscent of vintage Hanna-Barbera and a good match for the slapstick story.” from breaking news

face, a lovely bouquet, even abstract compositions “that then take shape” to form a dog and then other things. Readers familiar with tangrams might be disappointed that the transformations are not mathematically accurate, but the soft, cream-colored paper, complementary colors and clean design result in a harmonious balance nonetheless. Emotionally, the ups and downs of a day with a friend will ring true for young children.

Bertier presents a marvelous springboard for using formal elements to create individual or collaborative narratives. (Picture book. 3-6)

WHIMSY

Besant, Annie Illus. by Mhasane, Ruchi Karadi Tales (28 pp.) $11.95 paper | Aug. 12, 2014 978-8-181-90305-1 Is whimsy a fancy? A caprice? A vagary? A suddenly impulsive and apparently unmotivated idea or action, as a dictionary might define it?

Ms. Fox in purple skirts with two yellow parasols and Mr. Prat, an unlikely mixture of pig and rat, vie with each other as they enact their definitions of “whimsy.” Preposterous ideas abound.

Ms. Fox asserts that “whimsy is when I wear a cat for a hat and feed it custard and cream with a silver spoon.” Mr. Prat disagrees: “Sweet Ms. Fox, whimsy is when I wear pink pantaloons and ride a unicycle with my dog Blue.” At one point, Ms. Fox asks Mr. Prat to dance with her “forever by the light of the moon.” Who should be gliding by in a boat in the accompanying double-page spread, but those two well-known characters of comic poetry, the Owl and the Pussy-cat. As their famous forebears did in Lear’s poem, the amusing duo marry and produce an heir with the best qualities of both whimsical creatures. Watercolors in pastel and deeper-toned hues depict the playful creatures and their other friends as they cavort through these pages.

An amusing complement to any illustrated version of the Lear poem. (Picture book. 4-7)

SAM’S PET TEMPER

Bhadra, Sangeeta Illus. by Arbona, Marion Kids Can (32 pp.) $16.95 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-77138-025-6

A little boy’s temper becomes a creature of its own.

Fed up with waiting his turn for the swings and slide at a crowded playground, Sam becomes angry. From the top of his head rises a dark tangle of curly pencil lines. “Suddenly, something jumped in among the kids.” It’s a Temper, and it’s a feisty little monster. It clears the playground (no more waiting!) and follows Sam home. Naturally there’s trouble, and Sam’s defense 84

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that “it wasn’t me. It was my Temper” holds no water. From home to school to playground, Sam becomes increasingly frustrated with the Temper’s mischief and eruptions. Finally, he musters inner strength and learns to control it. It’s unclear, given that the Temper arose from Sam’s own head, why checking it doesn’t make it disappear—instead, it lurks near a toddler as if considering becoming that toddler’s temper. Intermittent patterned backgrounds recall the 1970s, as does the limited color range, which nicely offsets the volatile emotion. Figures are stylized with a faint touch of art deco, especially in their positions and postures. The Temper’s a ball of curly black hair with black button eyes, striped limbs and tail, and a huge red mouth, its general shape paralleling Sam’s hair (though also, unfortunately, recalling a golliwog doll).

A satisfactory addition to the wide category of picture books about fury and tantrums. (Picture book. 3-6)

BREAKING NEWS Bear Alert

Biedrzycki, David Illus. by Biedrzycki, David Charlesbridge (32 pp.) $17.95 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-58089-663-4 Curious bears trigger a media frenzy.

It all starts when Jean Louis, the host of the kids’ show Our Furry Planet, pokes a sleeping bear. The bear rears up, startled.

Jean Louis flees, and the bear’s not far behind. He and a pal perch atop the Our Furry Planet truck gleefully, with arms in the air as if riding a roller coaster. Across the bottom of every double-page spread, updates appear in a blue ribbon, just like on the TV news channels. Except here, the updates are dire while the bears are clearly no threat. As people run screaming through the streets, the bears calmly take in the sights. When two terrified kids abandon their toy vehicles, the bears happily jump on.

(Mom’s so excited to be on television she doesn’t notice a thing.)

In hats and human clothes, the bears go unnoticed at a department store. (Hysterically, the male bear’s outfit resembles Paddington’s, while the female’s dress looks an awful lot like the Berenstains’ Mother Bear’s.) Outside, the bears make a beeline for an ice cream truck, inadvertently interfering with robbers making a getaway. In an instant, the bears go from fugitives to media darlings. Biedrzycki delivers a genuine message with a light touch. His Adobe Photoshop illustrations are bold and playful, appropriately reminiscent of vintage Hanna-Barbera and a good match for the slapstick story.

Fun and topical. (Picture book. 4-7)

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WILD THINGS! Acts of Mischief in Children’s Literature Bird, Betsy; Danielson, Julie; Sieruta, Peter D. Candlewick (272 pp.) $22.99 | Aug. 5, 2014 978-0-7636-5150-3

A chatty inside look at some of the stories that have shaped modern chil-

dren’s literature.

The authors, three prominent children’s-literature bloggers (Sieruta died in 2012), wear their hearts on their sleeves in this tribute to the chronically underrated art form. Although they open with the hope that their book will serve as a corrective to those who believe that children’s literature is all fluff and bunnies, it’s clear that their audience is their choir. They are far from preachy, however, ranging far and wide in their survey of “mischief.” Exactly what constitutes mischief is rather conceptually fluid, as the authors cover gay and lesbian authors and illustrators, the relative literary worth of series fiction and celebrity publishing, among other topics. Likewise, organization is a little strained, with a “behind-the-scenes interlude” that covers “hidden delights” falling immediately after the book-banning discussion, for instance, but the authors’ enthusiasm and engagement will keep the pages turning. While some of the stories they present are old news to many (Robert McCloskey dosed the models for Jack, Kack, et al., with red wine), others, particularly some fascinating publication histories, will open eyes. The discussion of censorship is particularly thoughtful, both emphasizing intellectual freedom and considering the problematic nature of classic literature amid changing cultural sensibilities.

Though it’s unlikely to reach far beyond children’s-literature scholars and enthusiasts, it will offer that audience a whole lot of enjoyment and no small amount of edification. (Nonfiction. 14 & up) (Note: Bird and Danielson are freelance contributors to Kirkus.)

THE TWYNING

Blacker, Terence Candlewick (432 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-7636-6902-7 Rats and humans declare war on one another in this gory study in hidden fears and shifting loyalties.

Vaguely Victorian in setting, the narrative switches in short alternating chapters between human and rodent casts.

Below ground, Blacker concocts an elaborately structured community of rats who somehow converse nonverbally by telepathic “revelation”; certain virginal bucks can even “hear” ambient information. Overhead, street child Dogboy gets by helping both a rat catcher who collects victims for slaughter in pit fights |

with dogs and also a crackpot scientist who, allied with an ambitious local politician, is engineering a campaign of fear to fuel large-scale massacres of the rat population. Along with adding a companion for Dogboy in Caz, a younger escapee from a “dance school” that trains girls as playthings for wealthy perverts, the author crafts ugly scenes of human brutality that give the rats—vicious or even cannibalistic as some may be—the moral high ground. Despite some humans whose sympathies lie with the rats, the sides are clearer than the plot, which climaxes in a muddled running battle that ends in a draw and is followed by a contrived happy ending. The fantasy elements do at least provide some distraction from the blunt lambasting of human savagery.

Thoroughly unpleasant and turgid to boot. (rat glossary) (Fantasy. 12-14)

SOME BOYS

Blount, Patty Sourcebooks Fire (336 pp.) $9.99 paper | Aug. 5, 2014 978-1-4022-9856-1 In an instructive and carefully drawn tale, Grace, who has been raped, develops a tentative relationship with Ian, a friend and teammate of her rapist.

Grace has been ostracized and taunted by classmates ever since she publicly accused a popular boy named Zac of raping her at a party.

Ian is grounded after driving home from a different party drunk and running his dad’s car into a mailbox. Both Grace and Ian get in trouble with school authorities for angry outbursts, and both are assigned to clean lockers during school break. The two are drawn to each other, but mistrust and misunderstandings abound. Grace and Ian narrate alternating chapters, and questions commonly asked in the aftermath of rape are answered with details that feel true to the characters. For example, Grace wears leather boots, studded cuffs and short skirts as a reaction to her sweater-set–loving stepmother and also because the clothes make her feel tough. A scene in which Grace dons Muslim garb to protest the way girls are judged by their appearances and offends Khatiri, an Afghani classmate, feels out of step with the rest of the book, particularly when Khatiri later shows up to offer Grace support. Readers will find themselves rooting, however, both for the romance and for Grace’s and Ian’s growth.

A largely sensitive treatment of an emotionally complex topic. (Fiction. 14-18)

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KINDA LIKE BROTHERS

Booth, Coe Scholastic (256 pp.) $17.99 | $17.99 e-book | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-545-22496-3 978-0-545-66288-8 e-book Booth offers a glimpse of gritty innercity life for a middle-grade audience through the eyes of 11-year-old Jarrett.

Jarrett’s failing summer school, making an ignominious repetition of sixth grade seem all too likely. His mother, fine at nurturing a long series of foster babies, is surprisingly oblivious to his floundering attempts to manage the schoolwork and his resulting discouragement, an emotional distance she also maintains with strong male role model Terrence, her boyfriend. Then she takes in Kevon, mature beyond his 12 years, and his toddler sister, Treasure. Jarrett resentfully shares his room and life with Kevon, but he also spies on him, discovering much about his foster brother’s mysterious, unhappy past. At the same time, he and best friend Ennis are cleverly crafting a horror film trailer at the community center that plays a major, positive role in local kids’ lives. Ennis is exploring his growing realization that “I don’t like girls, and I don’t think I ever will,” a revelation Jarrett sensitively accepts, in sharp, not fully explained contrast to his increasingly bitter, self-indulgent conflict with Kevon. The many plotlines keep the narrative brisk, enhanced by believable dialogue and nicely rounded characters, even though their motivations don’t always feel fully justified.

Jarrett’s frank view of the inner-city perils he faces is optimistically balanced by the strengths offered by family, friends and his community. (Fiction. 8-12)

DOUBLE REVERSE

Bowen, Fred Peachtree (144 pp.) $14.95 | $5.95 paper | Aug. 1, 2014 978-1-56145-814-1 978-1-56145-807-3 paper Series: Fred Bowen Sports Stories Loosely based on real-life stories of football players who didn’t look the part, this tale of confident persistence will ring true for all the kids who have been told they’re too small or too female.

Jesse Wagner doesn’t look like a quarterback. His friend Savannah doesn’t look like a kicker, mostly because she’s a girl.

Despite the fact they don’t look like the types of players to excel at their chosen positions, with lots of practice and innate talent, they lead their freshman football team, the Panthers, through a great season. While Jesse and his friends work hard on their home field, Jesse’s brother, Jay, does his best in his new position on the field at Dartmouth College. Bowen, author of a couple dozen middle school novels based on sports, offers a tale for the 86

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reluctant reader who is captivated by football. There’s plenty of descriptive action on the field and even a few diagrams of different key plays to enhance the text. Readers whose interests lie elsewhere might not be as excited, since character development is minimal, and every relationship maintains a steady, conflictfree path that lacks tension. The simple sentences and basic vocabulary of this novel will be attractive to struggling readers.

An apt choice to surprise a young football fan with the power of words. (Fiction. 8-12)

FLASHLIGHT

Boyd, Lizi Illus. by Boyd, Lizi Chronicle (40 pp.) $16.99 | Aug. 12, 2014 978-1-4521-1894-9 A wordless picture book both soothing and gently humorous.

The cover displays the template that will appear throughout: black pages with stylized, silvery, moonlit flora and fauna, except where the flashlight’s glow shows the colors of objects as they appear in full-spectrum light. That triangular beam will reveal such things as a beaver in a pond, bats in the sky, mice munching on apples and a set of colorful Tibetan prayer flags suspended between two woodland trees. Although rendered in gouache, the art resembles a scratch painting, with myriad tiny plants and animals inscribed into the black background, starting with captivating endpapers. On the title page, an androgynous child in a tent lies propped on elbows, reading a book by flashlight. Because there is no text, the sets of doublepage spreads that follow initially leave room for interpretation as to whether one child or two are next seen happily perusing the night woods, flashlight in hand. No matter; the important elements are the amazing details in the art, the funny twist at the end and the ability of the author-illustrator to create a dark night world utterly devoid of threat.

Contemplative children will spend hours on each page, noticing such subtleties as reappearing animals and the slowly rising moon over the course of one night in the forest. (Picture book. 3-6)

TEACH ME TO LOVE

Brennan-Nelson, Denise Photos by Brennan-Nelson, Denise Sleeping Bear Press (24 pp.) $12.99 | Aug. 1, 2014 978-1-58536-858-7 The color photos of 11 different baby animals will produce many oohs and aahs, while the singsong rhymes teach various attributes.

The opening spread depicts a mother bear and two cubs. “I will learn. / Teach me, okay? / Show me, show me, / show me the way!” A monkey demonstrates swinging and climbing; a pair of

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“With characteristic simplicity and economy of line, veteran illustrator Burningham conveys the wonder of Sylvie’s discovery....” from the way to the zoo

heavy-lidded chicks presumably respond to a lesson in sleeping.

Some of the “lessons” pair logically with the animals, but others do not: There are bunnies with “hop” and a cheetah with “run” but also a kitten with “smile.” The photo of a mother and baby giraffe is glossed with a no-doubt rhyme-induced injunction to “[t]each me how / to be a friend. / Show me how / to stretch and bend.” The photo of a white dog and a black dog carrying a stick together makes the point of sharing. Kids will enjoy the animal photos, particularly those of babies, but it’s unfortunate that they are not identified anywhere. Even very young children love to point and repeat a name, but without it in the rhyme or on the page or even the backmatter, that element is missing.

While the book is well-intentioned, the “teach me” moments are both forced and too sweet for most palates.

(Picture book. 3-5)

WINTER MOON SONG

Brooks, Martha Illus. by Ruifernández, Leticia Groundwood (40 pp.) $18.95 | $16.95 e-book | Aug. 12, 2014 978-1-55498-320-9 978-1-55498-321-6 e-book Quiet but joyful, this is an original story based on a traditional theme found

in many cultures.

The author’s note mentions that in some Native American cultures, as well as in China, Korea and Japan, the trope of the rabbit in the moon is well-known. Brooks learned about it from a Lakota elder and then spun her own tale. A young rabbit in a northern clime learns the “Winter Moon Song.” On his way home from rehearsal for the annual performance, he stops in the woods and looks up at the image of the “rabbit-in-themoon” and remembers the story, told by his mother, of love and sacrifice binding together the Great Mother, Creator Rabbit (imagined by Brooks), and one of her earthly creations, a little rabbit. The song continues to honor this story and is meant to “lighten the darkest month of the year with a trail of magic.” Yet the new singer is not satisfied with the performance. Instead of the churchlike place with candlelight where the rabbits gather, he starts to sing right under the moon, “with the rabbit pattern clearly visible,” beginning a new tradition. The soft watercolors, in subdued gray and deep blue, with some contrasting warm brown and golden shades, set a tranquil tone.

A subtle tale, perhaps best read to a thoughtful child in the intimate setting of a winter bedtime. (Picture book. 5-7)

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BELLA’S BIRTHDAY UNICORN

Burkhart, Jessica Illus. by Ying, Victoria Aladdin (144 pp.) $15.99 | $5.99 paper | Aug. 5, 2014 978-1-4814-1105-9 978-1-4424-9822-8 paper Series: Unicorn Magic, 1

The author of the Canterwood Crest series switches from horses to magical unicorns in this chapter-book series opener.

Princess Bella lives in the Crystal Kingdom, where magic, unicorns and royalty coexist with intercoms and photography.

As a royal, Bella’s eighth birthday is important—her aura will become visible, and she will get her own unicorn. Three birthday storylines ebb and flow: Bella’s commoner best friends feel left out by the royal traditions; Bella periodically worries that no unicorn will Pair with her at the unicorn ceremony; and a mysterious woman with an evil, red aura and her own bad unicorns is rumored to live on the edge of town. While the book respects Bella’s friends’ feelings with regard to privilege, the plotline is simply resolved—at first only royals are allowed in the special birthday parade, and then that’s changed so her commoner friends can attend. Rather like the evil fairy in “Sleeping Beauty,” the mysterious woman arrives, uninvited, to trigger exposition and then leaves. The unicorn ceremony also passes without tension or surprise. The plotting is borderline adequate and doesn’t sparkle nearly as brightly as the descriptions of delicious meals, jewelry, unicorns and, most fulsome, dresses. Easyto-read, descriptive prose is augmented by friendly illustrations.

For very girly princesses-at-heart. (Fantasy. 6-9)

THE WAY TO THE ZOO

Burningham, John Illus. by Burningham, John Candlewick (40 pp.) $15.99 | Aug. 1, 2014 978-0-7636-7317-8

What could be more exciting than discovering a hidden door in your bedroom that opens to a secret passageway to the zoo?

With characteristic simplicity and economy of line, veteran illustrator Burningham conveys the wonder of Sylvie’s discovery, thus fulfilling a common childhood fantasy—to bring real, live zoo animals into your room and have them sleep in your bed. Sylvie visits the zoo every evening, chooses an animal and brings it to her room. Some are small enough to fit comfortably in her bed. Others are more problematic; a monkey steals things, the penguins splash noisily, and even the baby elephant is too big. Pandemonium erupts when one day Sylvie forgets to close the secret door and finds the animals crowded into her living room after school. The shy little girl finds a big voice within herself and bellows at the animals, who exit in a hurry. Sylvie rushes to clean up the mess before her mother gets home, setting up an innocent parental punch line: “[I]t looks as if you had

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“Readers will be confused, and then delighted, as they observe why the lion, offered some luncheon choices, thinks that grass is too snappy, mushrooms too prickly and berries too stinky.” from lion, lion

the whole zoo in here!” Luckily, the way to the zoo remains a secret, and the animals can still visit her at night.

As in so many of his other books, Burningham’s appeal lies in his ability to invent a fantasy scenario available only to young children, accomplishing it again here with consummate grace. (Picture book. 2-5)

LION, LION

Busch, Miriam Illus. by Day, Larry Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins (32 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 30, 2014 978-0-06-227104-4

cone and selects a “new favorite color” (pale yellow). Camille also has a map left over from the days of colonial Africa, which she adorns with men in top hats. Her whimsical dreams are finally interrupted by her mother, who is outside her bedroom and admonishes her to behave—for the second time. Written and illustrated by a Spanish duo, this small volume presents a very nontraditional sensibility with a graphic design that is similar to Aguilar’s fabric designs. Free-form black lines and shapes suggest objects rather than depict them. The color palette, in muted tones, is quite different from the typical, brightly rendered digital efforts in many picture books published recently.

Active and artistic young girls are not unknown in picture books, but Camille certainly makes herself heard among the others in the pantheon. (Picture book. 4-7)

Readers must pay careful attention to both the words and the pictures in this quirky, humorous book about a boy who is shouting out, “Lion!” and a lion

who is hungry.

The benign expression of the enormous, cartoonish lion on the cover and the fearless stance on the smiling boy, who looks to be African-American, standing nearby are excellent clues to young readers that this will be a humorous tale, with a relatively harmless carnivore. Even so, the lion looks quite menacing on the title page and on the first double-page spread, as he emerges from behind a building to see the boy shouting, “Lion!”

Readers are meant to feel befuddled when the lion asks the boy, “What are you doing?” and the boy says, “Trying to find Lion.”

The underlying feeling of unease continues when the lion leans in, eyes intent, and tells the boy “I’m looking for lunch.” Readers will be confused, and then delighted, as they observe why the lion, offered some luncheon choices, thinks that grass is too snappy, mushrooms too prickly and berries too stinky. The grand joke comes at the end, when the clever boy forces the lion to sneeze, and there is another play on the same theme on the very last page.

Sly, dark humor for little ones—at its best. (Picture book.

4-7)

BONJOUR CAMILLE

Cano, Felipe Illus. by Aguilar, Laia Chronicle (32 pp.) $12.99 | Aug. 5, 2014 978-1-4521-2407-0

BLACKBIRD

Carey, Anna HarperTeen (256 pp.) $17.99 | $9.99 e-book | Sep. 16, 2014 978-0-06-229973-4 978-0-06-229975-8 e-book A young woman runs from unknown enemies in this heart-pounding mystery.

Sunny (real name unknown) wakes on a Los Angeles subway track, a train hurtling toward her and no memory of who she is or how she got there. She escapes before the police can ask questions but quickly finds herself fleeing violent strangers who seem hell-bent on killing her. She has few clues to her identity: a blackbird and a short string of numbers and letters freshly tattooed on her wrist and a knapsack containing a small notebook in which a cryptic message instructs her to call an unfamiliar phone number, $1,000 in cash, a pocketknife and a can of Mace. Dreams of running from danger with a boy she doesn’t recognize but with whom she may have been in love could hold the key to Sunny’s past. The action never stops, as Sunny is framed for robbery and arson, while a mysterious man focused on revenge hunts her down. Sunny’s story is told through a flawless second-person narration, but the use of third-person to convey the viewpoints of several secondary characters knocks readers out of the carefully constructed, intensely immediate position of protagonist.

This edgy, action-packed thriller gives future genre offerings something to aspire to. (Thriller. 15-18)

A free-spirited girl celebrates the morning in so many ways.

Camille arises on Sunday morning and “puts on her / battledress: a / tutu and a top hat.” She jumps on her bed, eats two pages’ worth of cherries (“loads and loads”) and then follows up with even more unconventional activities, such as giving names to the ocean’s waves and listening to a story told by the wind. She also decorates a huge number of balloons, melts an oversize ice cream 88

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NANA IN THE CITY

Castillo, Lauren Illus. by Castillo, Lauren Clarion (40 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-0-544-10443-3

A child learns to appreciate Nana’s urban environs.

Nana has a new apartment in the city, and her grandchild is excited but nervous about visiting. “I love my nana, / but I don’t love the city,” she tells readers. Accompanying art depicts how the city seems “busy” and “loud” and “filled with scary things.” Illustrating the last point, the picture shows the child small and scared against a graffitied wall while following Nana and looking back at a homeless man who is begging with a cup held before him. That night, Nana listens to her grandchild’s fears and promises a better day, but she also describes her love of the city. A facing wordless spread depicts Nana knitting into the night; careful readers may recognize the red yarn from a title-page vignette of two cats with a ball of yarn. The next day, she gifts her grandchild a knitted red cape (the same one depicted in jacket art). This acts as a security blanket or magical talisman of sorts to change the child’s perspective of the city.

Even an encounter with the previously “scary” homeless person becomes an opportunity for kindness as Nana hands him not money, but food. Throughout, Castillo’s soft, warmly colored art expresses the child’s changing feelings about the city while also depicting the characters’ close bond.

A sweet story for country-mouse readers. (Picture book.

3-6)

LET’S PLAY! Poems About Sports and Games from Around the World

Chatterjee, Debjani; D’Arcy, Brian–Eds. Illus. by Adl, Shirin Frances Lincoln (56 pp.) $19.99 | Aug. 15, 2014 978-1-84780-370-2 Sports and games are the stuff of everyday life, and poetry about these topics may appeal to many, both poetry readers and those who usually run far away.

From the classic “The Swing” by Robert Louis Stevenson and “Take Me Out to The Ball Game” by Jack Norworth to more recent selections such as “Computer Game” by Charles Thomson and “Chess Haiku” by co-editor Chatterjee, this is a very accessible collection including folk rhymes, haiku, rhyming poetry and free verse. There is representation from the United Kingdom, the United States, India, the Caribbean, Guyana, Ireland and Japan, but the editors could have made it even a little more international. The Caribbean clapping game “I Wouldn’t go to Missie” is known in the U.S. as “I Won’t go to Macy’s,” for instance, but there’s no explanation of that in the several pages |

of information about the sports and games. It might have been interesting to include the dates under each poem (they are in the acknowledgments) so that readers would have a sense of the span covered, from the 19th century until today. The intensely colored collages provide further diversity, from the Indian Snakes and Ladders board to the tropical Guyanese landscape with two girls running.

An anthology that’s a little off the beaten path, for athletes and poetry lovers alike. (Picture book/poetry. 7-11)

THE BEAR’S SEA ESCAPE

Chaud, Benjamin Illus. by Chaud, Benjamin Chronicle (32 pp.) $17.99 | Aug. 5, 2014 978-1-4521-2743-9

Papa Bear is once again in hot pursuit of Little Bear in this visually delectable, seek-and-find sequel to Chaud’s awardwinning The Bear’s Song (2013).

It’s wintertime, and Papa Bear and his boy cub suddenly realize the snowy rooftop of the Opéra Garnier in Paris is no place to hunker down for the winter. The teddy-bear room of an elegant department store seems cozy enough, but while Papa Bear snoozes, a little boy decides to take Little Bear home. (All’s fine until he discovers “his new toy bear is more bear and less toy!”) When Papa wakes up, the chase begins. The oversize, elaborately detailed, color-saturated artwork effervesces with intriguing stories within stories, and it’s up to readers to locate Papa and his cub amid the glorious mayhem, from the city streets to a train to a cruise ship to a tropical island. The chase takes Papa Bear underwater with the whales and into a jungle, where he’s swept up in a conga line at a masquerade party! From atop a sumptuous banquet table, Little Bear trumpets his own tune for his beloved Papa Bear…and he is found. This story, first published in France as Coquillages et petit ours (2012), lacks some of the poetic playfulness and polish of the first book, but the charming, lavish artwork and the just-challenging-enough spot-the-bear game more than make up for it.

As charming as two bears can be. (Picture book. 2-8)

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SOMEBODY ON THIS BUS IS GOING TO BE FAMOUS

Cheaney, J.B. Sourcebooks Jabberwocky (304 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-4022-9297-2

An intriguing mystery, a cataclysmic storm and a school bus accident converge with extraordinary results.

Nine of the students who ride Mrs. B.’s school bus are about to find their lives intersecting in unexpected ways. A new stop on their established bus route stirs little curiosity until several students notice that a passenger never appears. As seventh-grader Bender collaborates with other students in his quest for the truth, they uncover the repercussions of a tragic event that occurred nearly two decades earlier. Cheaney immediately immerses readers in the action, opening with the chaotic accident scene and then transitioning back nine months to the first day of school. Following the months of the school year, the chapters highlight different characters. Even as she drops subtle hints regarding the mystery, the author reveals the challenges the characters face. With the nine key characters in a variety of middle school grades and situations, the tale explores a range of life experiences. It addresses familiar issues, such as defining self-worth and social relationships. With compassion and insight, Cheaney also delves into the anguish that comes with watching a beloved family member decline into illness and explores the effects secrecy has on children’s lives. As events culminate in the accident, the characters must rely upon their inner resolve during a crucial turning point.

Cheaney effectively combines multiple layers of mystery with an uplifting message about resilience. (Mystery.

10-14)

NEW YORK Inside and Out

Cochran, Josh Illus. by Cochran, Josh Big Picture/Candlewick (16 pp.) $17.99 | Aug. 5, 2014 978-0-7636-7520-2 It’s a book! It’s a poster! It’s a toy!

Hours of enjoyment!

Cochran has made a large-format accordion-fold panorama of New York City—mostly Manhattan of course, but with nods to Brooklyn (bridge), Staten Island (ferry), Queens (Eddie’s Sweet Shop) and the Bronx (zoo). One side points out landmarks large and small: There’s the Statue of Liberty, the Chrysler Building and one of the New York Public Library’s lions, but also Katz’s deli, the Central Park carousel and Peking Duck House. The other side pictures the same busy, colorful, detailed scenes but with cutaways revealing the insides of buildings, objects and vehicles. The illustrator has populated his New 90

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York with zillions of small figures reminiscent of the online gallery “Humans of New York,” but there are also monkeys (climbing on the Guggenheim Museum’s spirals), robots, giant bunnies and even people in space suits (and a unicorn). Glimpses of the insides include folks doing yoga and karate, bathing children, working at desks and cooking (although it seems to be an octopus stirring the pot).

All in all, very much fun, although one might have trouble deciding whether to shelve it, hang it or reverse it.

(Picture book. 4-10)

THE ZOO BOX

Cohn, Ariel Illus. by Steinke, Aron Nels First Second (48 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-62672-052-7 The zoo comes to two unsuspecting children when they discover a magical, mysterious box.

Young Erika, perhaps 12, and her younger brother, Patrick, are about to enjoy a night home alone, when, while playing dress-up in the attic, they happen across a curious box. The box—a hatbox with zebra stripes—is clearly labeled “DO NOT OPEN.” Believing that it could be a birthday present or an old, beloved and forgotten toy, the pair disregard the label and tear into it. Imagine their surprise when a full-size ostrich bursts out, followed by an entire menagerie of zoo life. When Erika and Patrick decide to follow the animals, they find themselves in a strange, topsy-turvy zoo and must puzzle out how to get all the animals back into that tiny box. Told through wide, bright panels, this graphic-novel/picture-book hybrid will certainly conjure memories of Chris Van Allsburg’s Jumanji (1981), though Cohn and Steinke’s tale is much less dark and wraps up tidily, with just a shred of lingering unease. Though the story is obviously a fantasy, some readers may wonder why the parents would leave these two kids alone or why the animals would willingly and easily re-enter the box. However, sometimes it’s better to just enjoy the ride and leave all the details to the grown-ups.

A nimble offering for those not quite ready for Jumanji.

(Picture book. 5-9)

LOOK BACK!

Cooke, Trish Illus. by Binch, Caroline Crocodile/Interlink (32 pp.) $16.95 | Aug. 1, 2014 978-1-56656-980-4 A grandmother tells a story from her West Indian childhood to her grandson.

Grannie questions her grandson: “I ever tell you about Ti Bolom?” Ti Bolom is a folk character from Grannie’s childhood home of Dominica who terrifies people walking alone at night. She begins

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a “Little Red Riding Hood”-esque story from her youth, telling her grandson that when she was his age, she was tasked with taking food to an old lady who lived in the jungle. Grannie (then called Christophine) knew it would be dark on the way back and was afraid she’d meet Ti Bolom but braved the journey nonetheless. Binch’s lavishly detailed art pulls readers into the setting and expertly conveys Christophine’s nervous movement. Though Christophine escapes Ti Bolom’s clutches, the curious and brave child returns to the jungle to set a trap for the trickster. Sadly, the ending—both the text and illustration—doesn’t leave readers room to make up their own minds about the validity of Grannie’s tale. However, this does not spoil a story whose characters’ feelings are so vividly rendered readers may recall seeing such expressions in real life. Beautiful visuals aside, it will also make a walloping read-aloud, with its West Indian cadences, repeated onomatopoeia and folk refrain of “ ‘Eh Kwik!’ ‘Eh Kwak!’ ” A lovely celebration of the grandparent and grandchild relationship. (Picture book. 5-9)

FIREBIRD

Copeland, Misty Illus. by Myers, Christopher Putnam (40 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 4, 2014 978-0-399-16615-0 A dancer offers encouragement to those who dream of following her onto the stage.

Copeland, a soloist with American Ballet Theater, is a rara avis, an African-American ballerina. In this, her first book for children, she establishes a dialogue with an imaginary young girl, also black, who is full of doubts. Copeland assures her that she too was “a dreaming shooting star of a girl” who worked very hard in class. Likewise, the young girl can “become a swan, a beauty, a firebird for sure.” The text is untrammeled by capital letters or periods, and the language soars into dizzying heights of lyrical fancy that barely contain her message of inspiration.

Myers’ artwork, a combination of textured paintings and collage, is the true standout. His vibrant reds, golds and blues, set into the sharp-edged patterns of the backgrounds, evoke the intense drama of the Firebird ballet and pulsate with kinetic synergy. Double-page spreads depict the young girl maturing from loneliness to uncertainty to accomplishment as the ballerina practices at the barre and provides a one-on-one display of bravura technique. The New York City skyline sparkles as Copeland does jetés over a jeweled Brooklyn Bridge.

A starscape filled with visual drama and brilliance. (author’s note) (Picture book. 6-10)

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WHY?

Corderoy, Tracey Illus. by Warnes, Tim Tiger Tales (32 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-58925-168-7 More character sketch than story, this title will feel familiar to parents of

curious children.

Protagonist “Otto [is] a rhino with a LOT of questions.”

Most of these questions begin with the titular query as Otto wonders about the world, making messes and causing some upset along the way. His parents are wearied by his constant questions and decide a trip to a museum might provide him with some answers. Instead, the stimulation of the museum provokes even more questions—some about exhibits, but some are about the other museumgoers. “Why does that man have such big ears?” he asks about a bespectacled rabbit. “Why is her nose so long?” he wonders when he sees a lady anteater. Such questions make others look disapprovingly at the family, but rather than guiding him to more polite behavior, his parents simply shush him. Eventually, Otto’s questions slow down because he is tired, and his parents take him home to bed. The next morning, however, he’s wide awake and ready with the question “WHY aren’t you up yet?” Sweet, cartoonish art in vibrant colors elevates the picture book’s achievement, but on the whole, this ends up seeming more like an affirmation of adult perceptions of toddler behavior than a story for toddlers themselves.

Look for a different title to entertain, rather than impersonate, young readers. (Picture book. 3-5)

LITTLE ELLIOT, BIG CITY

Curato, Mike Illus. by Curato, Mike Henry Holt (42 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-0-8050-9825-9

The big city is clearly New York, but it’s a grayed and sepia city sometime in the late 1940s, judging from the cars and clothing.

Elliot is a small, polka-dot elephant who loves his city even though it is hard for him to catch a cab or even open a door.

(And he does the dishes by sitting in the sink with them.) He’s too little to be seen when he tries to buy his favorite treat, a cupcake, and that makes him sad. But he sees a tiny, very hungry mouse trying desperately to scale a trash bin for scraps. He manages to help get Mouse something to eat, and lo! He feels “like the tallest elephant in the world!” With Mouse’s help, the next day he gets that cupcake. The last image peers through Elliot’s window to find him and Mouse sharing it. The Flatiron Building, brownstone steps and the Empire State Building are clearly recognizable, giving the story Big Apple authenticity. The art has its own meticulous beauty, but the story is more saccharine than sweet—rather like too much frosting on a cupcake. The

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“This imaginative, offbeat and original tale, lightly dusted with believable magic, perfectly captures a generous child’s loyalty and dedication and ends with comfort and subtlety.” from the storm whale

endpapers are a lush repetitive pattern of variegated cupcakes, with cameos by Elliot and Mouse.

This feels far more like a parable for adults than a picture book for children, who may also miss the elegance of the New York City images in their dark, soft palette.

(Picture book. 4-7)

RED BERRIES WHITE CLOUDS BLUE SKY

Dallas, Sandra Sleeping Bear Press (248 pp.) $15.95 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-58536-906-5

After her father, a Japanese immigrant, is arrested on trumped-up charges of espionage at the outset of World War II, 12-year-old Tomi and the rest of her family, like many Japanese-Americans, are incarcerated in an internment camp for the remainder of the war.

The family is given just two weeks to prepare for their imprisonment. They sell most of their possessions, and after several months in temporary quarters in a stall at a California racetrack, they are transferred to an unfinished camp, Tallgrass, in Colorado. Dallas, who portrayed the same fictional internment camp in her related adult novel, Tallgrass (2007), now explores camp life from an internee’s point of view. An optimistic girl, Tomi navigates the myriad difficulties of camp life and unfair imprisonment with a generally positive attitude until her embittered father is allowed to rejoin the family early in 1944. His seething anger unseats her efforts to make the best of things and cope with the prejudice of local residents. Eventually, a kind teacher inspires Tomi to enter a statewide essay contest that she wins, predictably relieving her father’s bitterness. Nearly unvarying subject/predicate sentence structure, uninspired dialogue and periodic infodumps—most of which feels as if written for a very young audience—serve to diminish the attractiveness of the presentation.

An only average depiction of a compelling and important topic. (Historical fiction. 9-12)

THE STORM WHALE

Davies, Benji Illus. by Davies, Benji Henry Holt (32 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 30, 2014 978-0-8050-9967-6

the shore, Noi discovers a small beached whale and brings his curious new friend home to the family tub with the best possible results. His father isn’t angry at all but realizes that Noi has been lonely. As the whale needs to be in water, however, Noi’s father rows boy and whale through the stormy ocean until they reach a suitable depth. (Both humans are clad in yellow oilskins and sou’westers.) This imaginative, offbeat and original tale, lightly dusted with believable magic, perfectly captures a generous child’s loyalty and dedication and ends with comfort and subtlety. Noi gazes off to sea, an obvious pair of parent-child flukes in the distance, thinking of when he will see his friend again, while his beloved father watches him, clearly enjoying relaxing with his son.

Replete with both peaceful charm and a sense of wonder, this is a selection children will embrace and come back to time and time again. (Picture book. 3-8)

MR. FERRIS AND HIS WHEEL

Davis, Gibbs Illus. by Ford, Gilbert HMH Books (40 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-0-547-95922-1

The invention of the Ferris wheel is explored in story and pictures designed to describe the age of innovation for young readers.

The legendary Ferris wheel was one of myriad inventions that came out of the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. was a mechanical engineer who was determined to outdo the star of the previous World’s Fair, the Eiffel Tower. To Ferris, engineering and innovation were part of the American nature, and he set out to prove it by designing a structure that would amaze fairgoers. Working with his engineering partner, Ferris turned his vision into plans but had difficulty convincing officials until they found themselves without a star attraction months before the fair was to open. They agreed to his plan but provided no financing. Ferris was relentless in his efforts to bring his wheel to fruition, and it became one of the fair’s most popular attractions. This straightforward narrative for younger readers provides a good sense of the period of innovation and the type of personal drive it took to bring ideas to reality. Additional pertinent facts that support the story appear in sidebars. The slightly retro, line-and-color illustrations, done in an unexpected, muted palette, enhance the text and provide additional interest.

Kids who take Ferris wheels for granted should find this history eye-opening. (sources, bibliography, websites) (Informational picture book. 5-8)

The story of a very unusual friendship.

Noi lives with his father and six cats in an isolated home by a shining sea. Bright, simple text that sparkles with clarity and quietly dazzling illustrations that have the feel of another time and place describe Noi at home with his feline compatriots as his father goes out to work on a fishing boat. While walking on 92

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THE BOY I LOVE

de Gramont, Nina Atheneum (288 pp.) $17.99 | $10.99 e-book | Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-4424-8056-8 978-1-4424-8058-2 e-book Wren’s infatuation with handsome charmer Tim takes on an unexpected emotional depth after Tim reveals that he is gay.

Their friendship blossoms as she becomes a fiercely loyal defender of his secret, while he offers her emotional support during her family’s financial struggles.

The novel’s premise initially feels like a traditional trope: Two best friends transfer to a new school where romance and varying degrees of social acceptance strain their friendship. But Wren’s voice transforms the potential teen dramafest into a nuanced reflection on gaining independence through the pursuit of individual interests and demonstration of concern for the well-being of others. Wren displays an uncanny ability to say just the right thing to comfort Tim during dark moments, a skill many readers will envy. And her very public loyalty to Tim is admirable. Yet Wren is far from perfect, occasionally privately revealing she still longs for a romance with Tim or feels jealous of his relationship with a football player, though she knows these feelings are unfair. Admissions like these ensure Wren is a dynamic character, not just a literary edifying device.

Thoughtful parallels between discrimination based on race and sexual orientation are also skillfully interwoven.

While not romantic, Wren and Tim’s relationship becomes another powerful iteration of the book’s message that “[l]ove is love,” and all loves deserve respect. (Fiction.

12-18)

THE CAKE

de Monfreid, Dorothée Illus. by de Monfreid, Dorothée Gecko Press (32 pp.) $16.95 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-877579-45-5 When a tiger wants to make a cake, he and his friends fight over its ingredients with humorous (if naughty) results.

Cartoon-style, vibrantly colored art complete with speech balloons introduces a dog that wants a bone cake, a bunny that wants a carrot cake, a teddy bear that wants a fish cake and a monkey that suggests a banana cake. Tiger insists on chocolate, but the others respond with disgust when he lists the necessary ingredients. “Well, what shall we make then?” the tiger reasonably asks. When the group suggests a “bone-banana-carrot-andfish cake,” the tiger’s speech balloon adopts a pointy intensity, as its large script bellows, “NO WAY! That would be revolting!” Instead of talking things through, the group responds, “YOU’RE REVOLTING!” An all-out brawl ensues. The four |

animals fling their food choices at the tiger, and then the tiger threatens to eat them. It’s unsurprising that they scurry away, leaving the tiger all alone. When they return, they come bearing the chocolate cake that adorns the book’s jacket, and at first the tiger is pleased—but then instead of eating the cake together, the other animals hurl it at the tiger, leaving readers with a vision of it just about to land on his striped head.

There’s no moral to this story, just irreverent fun.

(Picture book. 3-5)

SUPERFAB SAVES THE DAY

Delaporte, Bérengère; Leroy, Jean Illus. by Delaporte, Bérengère Owlkids Books (40 pp.) $16.95 | Aug. 15, 2014 978-1-77147-076-6

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s…Superfab!

The best-dressed bunny member of the superhero world is ready to thwart crime, flout danger, save those in trouble and capture villains— but only after finding the right outfit, which naturally can be very time consuming. Since going through his walk-in closet for just the right costume can lead to extreme lateness, it looks like Superfab will never be first on the scene to show his true colors.

When the calls for help stop coming in, Superfab is supersad— until the phone rings with news that a new monster is in town.

All of the other superheroes have failed, and it looks like only a fashion-conscious champion of good can hope to prevail!

Brightly colored pencil illustrations show the brave young rabbit as he proclaims, “Justice and good taste are going to save the day!” and becomes a conquering hero by using his super (and very fashionable) gloves, even managing to make a new friend in the process. Young listeners will giggle along with the gentle humor and enjoy the mild suspense in this anything-but-stereotypical depiction of how important it is to be yourself.

Up, up and away! (Picture book. 3-6)

THE PANDAS AND THEIR CHOPSTICKS And Other Animal Stories

Demi Illus. by Demi Wisdom Tales (28 pp.) $16.95 | Aug. 31, 2014 978-1-937786-16-8

Ten fables with pretty pictures and explicit, if not always apt, morals.

Recast from unspecified originals, this collection of minitales opens with the titular vision of hungry pandas seated around two tables and holding very long chopsticks—a version of which appeared previously in the author’s Chinese Zoo (1987).

They solve the problem of how to eat by feeding one another with their 3-foot chopsticks. Its moral—“Be generous. It brings

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INTERVIEWS & PROFILES

Nick Bertozzi

It’s not always about being macho, even if you’re an intrepid polar explorer

By Gordon West

Photo courtesy Michael Lionstar

Propose a voyage to the South Pole and the general population would laugh and conversely book a trip to Maui. There are a hardy few (some might say foolhardy) who leap at the chance to brave Antarctic climes in the name of knowledge and science—and maybe a bit of notoriety. In the age of Edwardian exploration, Ernest Shackleton was one such luminary explorer drawn southward. In the span of over 20 years, he took part in a series of four expeditions to Antarctica, but it is his third that is arguably the most notable. Author and illustrator Nick Bertozzi has centered his graphic novel, Shackleton: Antarctic Odyssey, on Shackleton’s tertiary triumph, wherein the explorer set out to traverse Antarctica on foot and, against ridiculous odds, survived without losing one single human crew member.

It was a museum exhibit in Boston that inspired Bertozzi’s interest in Shackleton. The James Caird, 94

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the lifeboat that Shackleton used to sail 800 miles after his ship Endurance sank, was on display. “I missed it, unfortunately, but my mother told me the story, and I was immediately struck because it’s a terrific story,” says Bertozzi. “It just gets worse and worse and worse and worse.” As his research into the lauded explorer evolved, Bertozzi was impressed by Shackleton’s infallible ability to bolster group morale in the face of frostbitten adversity. In one particular case, practicality prompted Shackleton to order his crew to limit their belongings to 1 1/2 pounds of materials as they prepared to march across the ice floe. Gold coins and an expensive microscope were among the discarded paraphernalia, but he insisted that one crew member keep a weighty, song-inspiring banjo.

“Here’s a guy who knows it’s not just being macho, it’s also about making sure that the heart is OK as well,” says Bertozzi. “The spirit of the group is as important as just staying warm and having enough food. Singing songs refreshes people as much as rest, and in my estimation, it’s really good for you—and humor is as well.”

Humor isn’t generally synonymous with a gargantuan slab of ice, threats of scurvy, territorial elephant seals and lurking killer whales, but Bertozzi has discovered ample opportunity to weave it into Shackleton.

One crew member remarks on the unfortunate effects of ice as toilet paper, another crew member legitimizes his flatulence as a means of warmth, and a waddle of penguins squawks in bewildered response to a bicycle.

Bertozzi’s merging of factual representation with a stylistic humor is evident early on when, in the thumbnail gallery of Endurance’s crew, he includes portraits of 34 dogs and a cat named Mrs. Chippy. He did this to “give you a sense that [the dogs] had names and they had faces and they meant something to these men, that when they did kill them and eat them, it wasn’t just a

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tiny event in their lives, it was heartbreak.” (A warning for the animal-loving faint of heart: The canine crew is gradually ingested, but none of the 34 meal choices is easy.) There is one behind-the-hill shotgun scene in particular that encapsulates how distraught the men were to slaughter creatures they considered fellow crew members.

Needing to compress factual detailing for the sake of storytelling, Bertozzi wishes he could have further explored the loss of the ship. “I don’t think I was able to capture the fear that the sinking of the Endurance brought, because it was a long, long process,” says Bertozzi. “It was several stages. I think I got the rough emotion across, but I didn’t get the sense of devastation of that blow, how seeing the last mast of that ship disappear under the ice would have affected the men.”

Being a graphic novel based on historical fact, there are obvious parameters for developing plot. Guidelines determined by journals, biographies and documentaries don’t allow for much creative liberty to lure an audience, but Bertozzi says Shackleton’s story fits nicely into the realm of dramatic conflict as defined by a notable writer.

“David Mamet, the very famous American playwright, said in order to get dramatic conflict all you need is to ask yourself two questions and you answer them with one very simple sentence,” Bertozzi says.

The first question concerns what the protagonist wants. The second is: What stops the protagonist from getting what he or she wants? “And those two things make conflict right there. What does Ernest Shackleton want? He wants to get his men home alive. What gets in his way?” Here, Bertozzi laughs at this obvious question, a fleet of horrible obstacles vying for first place: “Ice, wind, current, sea lions, orcas, the lack of food....”

With such infamous elemental combatants, has Bertozzi ever felt the lure of Antarctica?

“Absolutely,” he says without hesitation. He was contacted by an engineer in the Royal Navy who traveled last year to Antarctica with an explorer and four other men in a 22-foot replica of the James Caird. They sailed 780 miles from Elephant Island to South Georgia and re-created Shackleton’s journey with period costumes, period supplies and period navigational equipment. Bertozzi asked if he could go along as their staff cartoonist. “Of course, being 6-foot-4-inches tall, I think I would have been a real detriment sitting in|

side the cabin of the little boat for all 16 days,” he admits. “Not to mention, I don’t do too well in cold.”

Having already covered Lewis and Clark in a graphic novel from 2011 and now Shackleton, Bertozzi has set his biographical sights on two tentative subjects: Zheng He, a Ming-era Chinese treasure fleet admiral, and Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, the Spanish explorer known for his travels across what is now the U.S. Southwest.

“I’ve gotten used to drawing ships, so I’d love to draw some Chinese ships,” says Bertozzi with palpable enthusiasm. “I just like the idea of this character who’s got this amazing motivation to create this huge fleet to go outside of China.”

Bertozzi doesn’t say whether he’s chosen these two potential subjects based solely on the proximity of their stories to warmer temperatures, but I’ve got my suspicions.

Gordon West is a writer and illustrator living in Brooklyn. He is addicted to horror films and is at work on his own teen novel.

Shackleton: Antarctic Odyssey received a starred review in the May 1, 2014, issue of Kirkus Reviews.

Shackleton: Antarctic Odyssey Bertozzi, Nick Illus. by Bertozzi, Nick First Second (128 pp.) $16.99 | Jun. 17, 2014 978-1-59643-451-6

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happiness to everyone”—seems a little off-target given that nobody’s giving away any food that belongs to them. Hubris is examined in an encounter between a kite and a butterfly (“Hello butterfly! I am so much higher than you! Aren’t you just a little bit jealous of me?”) and another between a proud river and the huge but humble ocean. Humility also features in the moral to the story of a turtle who “flies” on a stick lifted by birds until he opens his mouth. Since he’s cast as garrulous rather than proud and lands in a lake as he wanted to do rather than dying, there’s not much cautionary force to the episode. Creatures drawn with delicate, calligraphic strokes float in negative space on the pages within patterned borders, and though details in some stories aren’t depicted literally, the art adds a vivacious energy to each episode.

A sparse if nutritious (at least valuewise) gathering.

(Picture book/folklore. 6-8)

BRUNO AND TITCH A Tale of a Boy and His Guinea Pig Dempsey, Sheena Illus. by Dempsey, Sheena Candlewick (32 pp.) $16.99 | Aug. 1, 2014 978-0-7636-7316-1

It could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship….

Titch, a chubby guinea pig with a winsome mohawk, waits anxiously, Corduroy-like, in his glass box in the pet shop for a Big Person to adopt him. A boy named Bruno sits in his room wishing for his very own guinea pig. Titch’s efforts to attract an owner pay off when Bruno finds him and takes him home.

Titch’s excitement at finally being adopted is tempered with anxiety about the strange habits of his new young owner, who uses the hapless guinea pig as a prop in his wacky experiments.

The sedate little pet is not well-adapted to floating in the tub in a saucepan, being flown aloft in a makeshift balloon or hurtling down a track on a homemade train. He gets really worried when Bruno starts planning something big that Titch does not understand. All is well, however, when the final creation is revealed: a “great guinea-pig palace of fun,” complete with Jacuzzi, hammock, convenient celery garden, a snack train bearing Titch’s favorite fruit and “Poo Hut.” Titch realizes that in spite of their different personalities, the pet and his owner are becoming the best of friends. Dempsey’s insightful text and charming pen, pencil and watercolor illustrations are filled with intriguing details that will fuel conversations about what is involved in choosing a pet—as well as plenty of laughs.

The charismatic Titch may well spark a guinea-pig bubble; he’s that cute. (Picture book. 5-7)

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ALI An American Champion

Denenberg, Barry Simon & Schuster (96 pp.) $17.99 | $10.99 e-book | Sep. 23, 2014 978-1-4814-0141-8 978-1-4814-0143-2 e-book

The story of sports icon Muhammad Ali is told through created documents that explore his controversial life and its impact.

Ali was probably the first figure whose time on the public stage brought together issues of sports, race, religion and politics. His larger-than-life persona attracted great media attention, much of it polarizing. To tell his story, Denenberg has created fictional articles from newspapers and magazines, “man-onthe-street” interviews, letters to the editor, and “breaking news” radio and TV transcripts, all well-grounded in the context of the turbulent 1960s and ’70s. Ali’s religious conversion, his adoption of the name that defined him, and his relationships with Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad are shown generating mixed reactions in both black and white communities. The boxer’s stand against the Vietnam War, the career price he paid and his comeback culminating in his current legendary status round out the narrative. Period photographs and sepia-tone pages support the style of the telling. Similar to other works of nonfiction that employ fictional techniques, the created documents are based on the author’s extensive research and serve to focus on those aspects of Ali’s life that will resonate, and the accessible layout will connect especially with reluctant readers.

Ali makes a near-perfect subject for this eye-catching example of creative nonfiction. (timeline, bibliography) (Biography. 10-14)

BAKING DAY AT GRANDMA’S

Denise, Anika Illus. by Denise, Christopher Philomel (32 pp.) $16.99 | Aug. 14, 2014 978-0-399-24244-1

A rollicking, rhyming salute to the grandmother-grandchild bond.

Three independent, bundled-up young bears set off across the snow and past the pond for Grandma’s cottage, all smiles, as “It’s baking day at Grandma’s!” Everything at Grandma’s house—from the fire and old-fashioned stove and Victrola to her pink shawl and the woodsy cabin decor—points to coziness and love, and the ursine facial expressions reflect that. Though the adding of ingredients isn’t shown, Grandma’s role in the baking of the cake is limited to reading the recipe, and she even has aprons for each of the grandkids (though in one spread, they are inexplicably missing). While the cake is baking, there’s hot chocolate to drink and frosty windows to draw on. “Old-time music, soft and sweet, / Skippy notes and tapping feet. / Learning songs that Grandma sings— / When

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“DiCamillo’s quirky, eccentric characters speak in flowery sentiments and employ charming wordplay.” froms leroy ninker saddles up

the kitchen timer rings!” But this cake isn’t for eating; the siblings carefully decorate and wrap each piece as gifts. As darkness falls, the children bundle back up, share more hugs with Grandma and are off under the full moon for home, basket full of treats in their sled. Christopher Denise’s Photoshop illustrations are a mix of cartoony characters (though they are more real-looking than most anthropomorphized bears) and realistic settings, especially the snowy winter scenes between home and Grandma’s.

Just in time for Grandparents’ Day. (recipe) (Picture book.

3-7)

LEROY NINKER SADDLES UP

DiCamillo, Kate Illus. by Van Dusen, Chris Candlewick (96 pp.) $12.99 | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-7636-6339-1 Series: Tales from Deckawoo Drive, 1

Leroy Ninker dreams of being an honest-to-goodness cowboy as he watches Western movies while working at the concession stand at the drive-in theater.

He has some of the lingo down pat, and he knows he will need boots, a hat and a lasso. But his co-worker points out that he is missing the most important element of all: a horse. Providentially, there is a horse for sale. Though she is swaybacked and almost toothless, it is love at first sight when Leroy sees Maybelline. Leroy is given some unusual instructions; he must sweet-talk and compliment the horse, feed her plenty of grub and never leave her alone for more than a few moments. So there he is with a horse that won’t fit through his door, gobbles up potfuls of spaghetti and needs constant attention. Adventures and misadventures abound, and both horse and cowboy become lost in a scary storm. But with a little help from some old friends who have appeared in the author-illustrator team’s earlier works, it all comes together with the expected happy ending. DiCamillo’s quirky, eccentric characters speak in flowery sentiments and employ charming wordplay. Along with Van Dusen’s well-matched illustrations, there’s a sweet, retro innocence reminiscent of McCloskey’s classic Homer Price. Despite the old-fashioned accent, the absurdities will easily appeal to a modern audience.

Filled with love and kindness and glorious sweet-talk: “Yippee-i-oh.” (Fiction. 6-9)

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MORE AND MORE

Dodd, Emma Illus. by Dodd, Emma Templar/Candlewick (24 pp.) $12.99 | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-7636-7543-1 A monkey parent expresses love for all the bits and pieces of a monkey child.

The mother or father, not specified, reiterates how he or she loves every little thing about the child, every little activity, every little mood and emotion, every little game and every little range of behavior. This love is constant and everlasting and grows, until finally the ode concludes, “I love you more and more!” The repetitious text is mere fodder for the goldfoiled illustrations that feature parent and child in page-filling close-ups. The artwork is digitally rendered and imparts a very human visage to the little monkey’s face, hands and toes. In a double-page spread that evokes Valentine’s Day cards, the parent sits with arm around the child as their two tails entwine in a heart. In a companion title, Always, Dodd conveys her message of unconditional love through an elephant with similar moods and actions as the monkey. Even more foil embellishes the artwork in this volume, albeit this time in silver meant to evoke the African savanna. A similar cuddly finale finds elephant and child in a trunk-size embrace accompanied by the uber-reassuring “I always love you!”

High on message and low on content. (Picture book. 2-5) (Always: 978-0-763677544-8)

THE ZOO’S GRAND OPENING An Abc and Counting Book Drews, Judith; Hellige, Henrik Illus. by Drews, Judith Translated by Metcalf, Jen Little Gestalten (64 pp.) $16.95 | Aug. 1, 2014 978-3-89955-714-5

This German abecedary uses an imaginative device in which a series of animals

arrives at a new zoo.

Rhyming descriptions feature each creature’s characteristics as the zookeeper and his assistant interact with the new arrivals.

“When she glided in across the rug, / Our ANACONDA gave me a hug. / As the first one here, I guess she’s the winner, / But why does she keep on mentioning dinner?” (Presumably the translation and the necessity to rhyme force the contextually peculiar “rug.”) The illustration shows the snake wrapped around the keeper and wearing his cap. The first-person narration is carried throughout. Some animal choices are unusual; D is for Dromedary, while C is for Chameleon, for instance. H is for Hare, not rabbit, and N is for Nile crocodile. For the challenging letters, Q is for Quoll, U for Uakari and X for Xinusil (a “martian…from the moon”). The interactions of the two men with the animals add some nuanced humor. The subtitle states the book is an ABC and

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“Dominated by greens and browns, Duke’s friendly cartoons effectively communicate the immense variety of plant and animal life found in rain forests and feature cutaway views and close-ups in several spreads.” from in the rainforest

a counting book, but the counting part is incidental; 26 numbers run across the tops of the pages, with each ascending number highlighted. There is no legend to the animals.

However appealing the device, this pales in comparison to the many other, superior animal alphabets already out there. (Picture book. 5-7)

IN THE RAINFOREST

Duke, Kate Illus. by Duke, Kate Harper/HarperCollins (40 pp.) $17.99 | $5.99 paper | Sep. 2, 2014 978-0-06-028259-2 978-0-06-445197-0 paper This new entry in the Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out Science series is a Stage 2 title exploring the busy and diverse world of the rain forest.

In a format reminiscent of the Magic Schoolbus books, an adult leader accompanies an African-American boy and a Caucasian girl on a trip into the rain forest, with sidebars, fact boxes, picture captions, diagrams and speech balloons rounding out the information presented in the text. Readers learn how this habitat differs from forests in temperate climates and visit the three levels (and their various plants and animals)—understory, canopy and emergent layer—along with the three characters; don’t forget your climbing harness! Bolded words are defined within the text, and readers are barraged with fascinating facts: Ants make up more than half the insect species found in the rain forest (which explains why they get so many spreads). A labelled diagram shows the interconnectedness of the rain forest’s parts, and two final spreads focus on threats to the world’s rain forests as well as the benefits gained by protecting them. Backmatter invites readers to make a terrarium and lists various places in the U.S. where they can visit rain-forest exhibits. Dominated by greens and browns, Duke’s friendly cartoons effectively communicate the immense variety of plant and animal life found in rain forests and feature cutaway views and close-ups in several spreads.

A fascinating and solid introduction. (Informational picture book. 4-8)

CATCH THAT COOKIE!

Durand, Hallie Illus. by Small, David Dial (32 pp.) $17.99 | Aug. 14, 2014 978-0-525-42835-0

Some peripatetic gingerbread men make a believer of a skeptical grade schooler.

Mrs. Gray’s class has been listening to variations on “The Gingerbread Man” all week in preparation for a cooking activity.

Marshall knows it’s all hooey—cookies can’t run. The kids mix, cut and decorate before Mrs. Gray “locks” the gingerbread men in the oven…but when the oven is opened, the cookies have 98

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vanished. A series of rhymed clues takes the kids around the school in pursuit. Though initially Marshall suspects that Mrs. Gray has cooked up a literacy exercise to get between the kids and their cookies, a stray raisin makes him wonder—and then he notices hundreds of gingerbread footprints on the floor of the gym. Those “G-men” must be napping in the doll corner after all that running! Durand has created an attractive protagonist in Marshall; his skepticism is exactly age-appropriate, as is his pride in the way he “rocks” the dough. Small’s loose, line-andwatercolor cartoons feature a freckled, redheaded Caucasian boy with expressive eyebrows. (Mrs. Gray is also white, but her classroom is multiethnic.) There’s something a little half-baked about the story, though; although the buildup to the discovery of the cookies is effective, the denouement sags: Just what is going to happen to all these apparently sentient cookies? A closing vignette showing Marshall about to bite his cookie’s head off is downright disquieting.

Cute concept; uneven execution. (Picture book. 5-8)

READING WITH PICTURES Comics That Make Kids Smarter

Elder, Josh–Ed. Andrews McMeel (176 pp.) $19.99 | Aug. 5, 2014 978-1-4494-5878-2

Fifteen short, new (save one) episodes from 32 comics artists, writers and editors are presented as demonstrations of how comics can be used for educational purposes.

That agenda often weighs heavily on the entries, which are grouped under headers for “Language Arts,” “Science,” “Mathematics” and “Social Studies.” Chris Schweizer’s “The Black Brigade,” for instance, introduces a company of “Ethiopes” who fought on the British side in the American Revolution—but nearly all the action takes place offstage, and in the tiny panels, figures are crowded out by expository dialogue. Furthermore, in some episodes, the action is hard to follow, and in others, the writing barely reaches the sophomoric: “Whole books could now be produced in mass”; “Last night’s homework was over how you can explain complex instruction visually.” And even the better-crafted contributions aren’t free from factual errors.

Martha Custis’ name is misspelled in a revealing, high-energy portrait of “George Washington: Action President,” and the gravitational effects on space flight are casually dismissed in a hilarious discourse on the Newtonian Laws of Motion featuring Dr. Sputnik and the detached head of the great scientist.

Worthy of concept, wildly uneven in execution. (downloadable lesson plans, not seen) (Graphic anthology. 10-13)

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ON THE WING

Elliott, David Illus. by Stadtlander, Becca Candlewick (32 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-0-7636-5324-8 In this carefully planned book, readers simultaneously learn key facts about a variety of birds, absorb different forms of poetry and revel in beautiful artwork.

The first double-page spread features ruby-throated hummingbirds flitting across a landscape lush with coral and green vines. The poetry appropriately flits as well, reflecting the words that speak of the busy way in which these birds conduct their lives. Each ensuing set of pages also names a bird in bold black print at the top of the verso or the recto, then presents a poem revealing at least one characteristic of that bird. The gouache artwork perfectly matches the varying tones and forms of the poetry, which ranges from the humorous one-sentence poem for the macaw (“Who / spilled / the / paint?”) to literary accolades for the albatross to philosophizing about the Andean condor’s dark secrets. There is wordplay too, as in this observation of a crow’s voice: “pure caw-caw-phony.” The power of good poetry glides along through the final three pages, which note that the bald eagle doesn’t know the term “bird of prey / though he circles like a prayer // on the rising columns / of the shining, / sun-warmed air.”

From the graceful cranes flying across its wraparound cover to the single feather on the title page to the soaring eagle at the end, this book astounds. (Picture book/poetry. 4-10)

THE FAR DAWN

Emerson, Kevin Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins (352 pp.) $9.99 paper | $9.99 e-book Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-06-206286-4 978-0-06-206287-1 e-book Series: Atlanteans, 3 The eventful conclusion to the Atlanteans series.

Jumping right into the action three days after the events of The Dark Shore (2013), the narration gives a minimal recap of the complicated events and large cast.

Owen and Lilly, newly revealed to be the Medium of the Three Atlantean descendants prophesied to save the world, desperately race on to beat villainous Paul to both the Paintbrush of the Gods (a powerful tool that can restore the failing climate and rapidly dying planet) and the Terra (a personified spirit of the Earth). However, the Terra has a message for Owen: The prophecy of the Three’s a lie, and they will fail. Owen must discover what that means and why he can communicate with the Terra even though he isn’t the Medium. On the action-packed journey, he encounters a strange ally who enables an extended |

flashback to the original Atlantean Three in the days leading up to their disaster and the history of the Paintbrush of the Gods—the sequence takes readers away from the main plot for a long time, and much of it reads like an infodump, but it’s necessary information containing surprising revelations. A thematic buildup leads to a choice between saving the world and saving personal love—the execution’s surprising, believable and refreshingly true to the characters. The ending more than satisfies without being too tidy.

A winning combination of high stakes, sacrifice and heroism. (Science fantasy. 12-18)

THE GREAT THANKSGIVING ESCAPE

Fearing, Mark Illus. by Fearing, Mark Candlewick (32 pp.) $15.99 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-7636-6306-3

It’s Thanksgiving at Grandma’s, and nothing’s worse than being stuck with the babies.

As he waits with the toddlers for dinnertime, Gavin is pretty despondent…until his cousin Rhonda suggests they make a break for the swingset in the backyard (despite being told to stay with the “rest of the kids”). As she says, “sometimes you have to make your own fun.” They creep out of the designated kids’ room under cover of coats. The front door is blocked by vicious guard dogs (Grandma’s sleeping dachshunds). The “hall of aunts” may leave them pinched and smothered with hugs if they are spotted. They head for the back door, past the “great wall of butts” (parents watching football—don’t get between them and the TV!). They make it past the zombies (teenagers playing video games in the basement) and the food trap (the kitchen)…but it’s raining. Still, there’s fun to be made! Graphic novelist and illustrator Fearing’s first solo picture book, based on his memories of Thanksgivings past, is a hoot for all ages.

Kids will identify, and parents will reminisce. The digitally manipulated colored-pencil illustrations from a kid’s-eye view layer the humor on an exaggeratedly goofy text.

A holiday offering that definitely makes a fun all its own. (Picture book. 5-9)

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MY COUSIN’S KEEPER

French, Simon Candlewick (240 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-0-7636-6279-0

Do you have to be your brother’s keeper?

When his weird, long-haired cousin Bon turns up in Kieran’s hometown to stay with their grandmother and attend his school, it torpedoes the 11-year-old’s hopes of becoming one of the popular crowd. The neglected son of a mentally ill mother, Bon, also 11, has spent plenty of time on his own. He escapes into drawing and writing an elaborate adventure in which “Bon the Crusader,” “Kieran the Brave” and “Julia the Fair” (another new student, living temporarily with the mother who abducted her) vanquish the forces of evil.

There are certainly forces of evil about: families that are by no means as loving and supportive as Kieran’s and bullies in the schoolyard. For much of the story, narrator Kieran is not very likable. Caught up in resentment and in his efforts to find a place among the popular, bullying boys, he goes along with their actions. A cruel, unfair attack finally pushes him to do the right thing, becoming the “Kieran the Brave” Bon has imagined. This Australian import, set in a dying small town where soccer is king, stands out for its forthright depiction of dysfunctional families and its effective juxtaposition of them with a functional one.

A thought-provoking tale of family struggles, schoolyard bullies, masculinity, reaching out and intolerance, jealousy and friendship just right for middle-grade book discussions. (Fiction. 9-12)

FALLS THE SHADOW

Gaither, Stefanie Simon & Schuster (352 pp.) $18.99 | $10.99 e-book | Sep. 16, 2014 978-1-4424-9753-5 978-1-4424-9755-9 e-book Clones are being created for war; one girl battles back in this dystopian-thriller debut.

It’s been four years since Catelyn Benson’s older sister, Violet, got sick, died and was replaced with a clone that was kept ready and waiting for just this type of situation. But cloning is not without its opponents, most notably the Clone Control Advocacy. They have Cate’s family in their sights, due to the political prominence of Cate’s dad, the mayor, and the apparent instability of New-Violet. When New-Violet becomes the primary suspect in a murder and Cate is questioned by the CCA, Cate discovers alarming secrets concerning both the CCA and Huxley, the company that creates and maintains clones. For starters, Huxley is preparing clones to wipe out their “origins,” or original bodies. Not sure whom to trust—including her own sister or Jaxon, 100

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her cute classmate who also happens to be the son of the CCA’s president—Cate tries to outrun and outfight every opponent.

Although the story is formulaic, with a kick-ass heroine, nonstop action, a tentative romance and plenty of moral dilemmas, the teen’s first-person narration remains solid, and the murdermystery presents enough twists to keep readers engaged. The most intriguing aspect of the story, however, is Cate and Violet’s unusual and evolving relationship. A complete ending nevertheless leaves room for a sequel.

For die-hard fans of Divergent and The Hunger Games looking for the next read-alike. (Dystopian thriller. 13-18)

THE KEY THAT SWALLOWED JOEY PIGZA

Gantos, Jack Farrar, Straus and Giroux (160 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-0-374-30083-8 Series: Joey Pigza, 5

Joey takes on his toughest set of challenges yet in this heart-rending, triumphant series finale.

Challenge one: His manic depressive mom has hidden his meds. Challenge two: She’s abruptly checked herself into the hospital, leaving him in charge of a cluttered, roach-infested house and his baby brother, Carter Junior. Challenge three: His no-account dad (still with a Frankenstein face from the previous episode’s botched plastic surgery) is lurking about the neighborhood looking for a chance to snatch Carter Junior and run. Moreover, Joey’s brave efforts to stay “pawzzz-i-tive,” to be “the mature Joey, the think-before-you-speak Joey, the betterthan-Dad Joey, the hold-the-fort-for-Mom Joey, the keep-thebaby-safe Joey” are both aided and complicated by the return of Olivia—as he puts it, “the meanest cute blind girl I have ever loved.” Tucking enough real and metaphorical keys into Joey’s adrenalized narrative to create a motif, Gantos also trots out other significant figures from his protagonist’s past on the way to a fragile, hard-won but nonetheless real reunion. The conclusion invites readers to stop by: “There is always an extra slice waiting for you at the House-of-Pigza”—with delectable toppings aplenty.

Dark, funny and pawzzz-i-tively brilliant. (Fiction. 10-13)

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“Social injustice is a rare theme in middle-grade fantasy, but Glewwe conveys the insidious poison of prejudice by grounding the narrative in evocative details....” from sparkers

ONE BIG PAIR OF UNDERWEAR

Gehl, Laura Illus. by Lichtenheld, Tom Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster (40 pp.) $17.99 | $10.99 e-book | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-4424-5336-4 978-1-4424-5338-8 e-book Share and share alike!

Gehl’s debut picture-book text is a silly romp of a counting book with a lesson in sharing to boot. Its rhyming text opens with a giggle-inspiring dilemma: “ONE big pair of underwear. / TWO brown bears who hate to share. ONE bear wears the underwear. // ONE bear growls, ‘That isn’t fair!’ ” Ensuing pages display similarly silly conundrums: only two snacks for three yaks, just five pillows and mats for six sleepy cats, and so on.

The only thing that these creatures seem to share is a case of the greedies. For every situation, the one who comes up short is less-than-pleased, with the excluded cat, for example, thinking “Rats! Rats! Rats!” as it inflates an air mattress (which has a hole in it). Such comical twists abound in Lichtenheld’s illustrations, which more than hold their own against the text’s goofy details and seem like they would translate well into animation.

Ultimately, a group of 20 pigs amicably share just 10 playground slides, and seeing this, the bears are inspired to share their underwear, as depicted in the cover art. The other animals follow suit, and all’s well that ends well—even if the text credits the underwear, rather than the (ironically) generous pigs, for inspiring the feel-good camaraderie at book’s end.

A picture book to count on for delightful shared reading. (Picture book 3-6)

SPARKERS

Glewwe, Eleanor Viking (336 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 30, 2014 978-0-451-46876-5 A fantasy debut grapples thoughtfully with all-too-mundane evil.

Fourteen-year-old Marah may be intelligent, hardworking and musically gifted, but a mere “sparker” (the insulting slang kasir magicians use for the despised halani underclass) has little chance of a future. Such concerns seem trivial, though, when a mysterious plague devastates the city of Ashara. Marah forges an unlikely partnership with Azariah, a talented young kasir, to decipher a forbidden ancient text that might offer a cure—but what if the epidemic conceals a more sinister threat? Social injustice is a rare theme in middle-grade fantasy, but Glewwe conveys the insidious poison of prejudice by grounding the narrative in evocative details, constructing Ashara from an intriguing mix of the familiar and the alien. Marah is a terrific heroine—smart, determined and ferociously devoted to her friends and family—but she also |

makes mistakes, asks for help and finds herself torn between conflicting desires. If the other characters are less rich, they are still commendably complex and diverse. The grim subjects— racism, disease, betrayal and genocide—demand a dark tone, but it is never graphic or gratuitous. Nor is this tale devoid of light; but while insisting that triumph over systemic oppression is possible, it does not pretend that victory will be easy or without compromise.

A compelling story on a difficult topic, addressed with maturity and grace. (Fantasy. 10-15)

SKYDIVER Saving the Fastest Bird in the World

Godkin, Celia Illus. by Godkin, Celia Pajama Press (32 pp.) $19.95 | Aug. 15, 2014 978-1-927485-61-3

Threatened with extinction across North America, peregrine falcons were bred in captivity and provided with new territories until their populations rebounded.

Godkin begins her account of this environmental good news by introducing a peregrine pair who return from migration, court and lay eggs, only to have their first eggs taken by a rockclimbing human being. Luckily, peregrines will lay a second clutch, and the human has a good reason for the theft. Because the raptors’ DDT-affected eggs are too fragile to hatch normally, researchers have found a way to raise and breed them in captivity, releasing some into the wild after a carefully shielded chickhood and thereby saving the endangered species. Dramatic oil paintings show falcons in various activities—soaring, diving, hunting and feeding their chicks—and chicks being fed in captivity. In a change of pace, one spread shows a city street filled with people demonstrating against DDT. Later, a marauding great horned owl finds a nest; the surviving nestlings are moved to a city skyscraper ledge. Readers of this present-tense account who follow the links mentioned in the author’s note may be surprised to learn that this is not a new story. Peregrine falcons were removed from the U.S. and Canadian endangered species lists in 1999, though they’re still monitored in both countries.

Old or new, this success story will be welcomed by nature lovers. (Informational picture book. 4-7)

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“The text is minimal, as compressed as a prose poem, letting Graham’s spacious, impeccably placed and paced watercolors tell the tale.” from vanilla ice cream

LOLA GOES TO THE DOCTOR

Goldman, Marcia Photos by Goldman, Marcia Creston (32 pp.) $16.95 | Aug. 12, 2014 978-1-939547-11-8

In the second of this photo-illustrated series, Lola the winsome Yorkie goes to the vet.

Perhaps running a close second to monsters is children’s fear of going to the doctor and getting shots. It’s not Lola’s favorite thing to do either. In fact, she’s “a little nervous” today, because it’s her day to go to the “doctor.” She reminds herself it’s not all bad—after all, the waiting room is full of “nice toys,” and there are interesting animals to see there (on this visit, it’s a pig and a chicken). Lola tries to “wait patiently, just like the big dog,” a Bernese mountain dog that appears to be smiling for the camera, without a care in the world. Then Lola is called, and the doctor performs many of the routine examinations that people doctors do: He weighs her, looks in her ears, listens with his stethoscope.

Finally it’s shot time, and Lola tells herself that she’s a “big dog” too. The photographs provide little more than simple narration for the story, but they do so effectively. Children will easily relate to the spunky little pooch, identifying with her worries, cheering her bravery and feeling better about their next doctor visits. The charming, simple line drawings of Lola playing doctor on the endpapers provide another dimension.

If the tiny, 5-pound, button-nosed Lola can survive a doctor’s visit, anyone can. (Picture book. 3-8)

VANILLA ICE CREAM

Graham, Bob Illus. by Graham, Bob Candlewick (40 pp.) $16.99 | Aug. 1, 2014 978-0-7636-7377-2

Everyday life conspires to change the world. Want to try an ice cream cone?

For Graham, great events can have the most quotidian beginnings. To start: The weather is hot, and the ground is dusty— this is India in the summer. There is an open-air, roadside eatery— samosas, lassi, puri and muri—and a table with chairs under a few palms. A trucker stops his rig, filled with sacks of rice. Truck-stop sparrows are a bold breed, and one notices that one of the rice sacks is spilling its precious cargo. Time to feast, even as the truck pulls away: “Like all wild birds, he follows the food.” The text is minimal, as compressed as a prose poem, letting Graham’s spacious, impeccably placed and paced watercolors tell the tale. The truck drives to a port; the sacks are loaded on a freighter, which sails to a new city. Another day dawns. The sparrow finds another eatery in a city park. The weather is hot. A grandma and granddad are having ice cream cones. The sparrow drops onto the table to investigate, which agitates the dog, which bumps granddad’s arm, which dumps the cone in the baby’s lap: A new world is born.

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Heed Graham: Get up, get out of bed (drag a comb across your head, if you must), and go forth. (Picture book. 4-8)

CLOUDS A Compare and Contrast Book

Hall, Katharine Arbordale (32 pp.) $17.95 | $9.95 paper | Sep. 10, 2014 978-1-62855-449-6 978-1-62855-457-1 paper Hall continues her Compare and Contrast series (Polar Bears and Penguins, 2014) with a brief look at the many ways clouds are different from one another.

Seven sentences are split among 14 spreads, each highlighting a single aspect of clouds and featuring gorgeous photographs of skies. “Some clouds tell us a storm is coming; // or that a storm has passed.” With the page turn, black skies over a turquoise ocean give way to white, fluffy clouds over a bright green, rainwashed field, a rainbow arching down. Other opposites include big and fluffy/thin and wispy, colorful/dark, filling the sky/none at all, on the ground/high up, swirl/blanket. A “For Creative Minds” section in the backmatter allows kids to explore the water cycle with some hands-on activities that demonstrate evaporation, condensation and precipitation. Another spread encourages children to learn the four different categories of clouds (and what weather each predicts) and test their understanding with a matching activity. An age range for this title is difficult to pin down: Readers who will appreciate the very simple text will not be able to handle the advanced information presented in the backmatter—“Clouds are collections of small water droplets or ice crystals floating in the atmosphere”—and those who are ready to distinguish cloud types and explore the water cycle will not be captivated by the text.

Rather than this one-size-fits-none book, choose one that suits the age and developmental level of a specific intended audience. (Nonfiction. 4-7)

BUT!

Hamilton, Tim Illus. by Hamilton, Tim Holiday House (32 pp.) $16.95 | Sep. 15, 2014 978-0-8234-3046-8 An impromptu piratical birthday bash is saved at the last minute thanks to quick thinking and ample ugly footwear.

Eddie and his dog, Phil, reside in a happy little seaside community where the denizens’ biggest problem is their cold heads. When the duo’s fishing plans are scuppered thanks to Eddie’s aunt Sue’s insistence that he come to her place to do some chores, they find that this involves throwing a surprise party for her pal Capt. Rugbeard. Each time it looks like Eddie

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and Phil’s woes are solved, the page will end with a resounding, red, bolded “BUT….” And with each turn of the page, the font of the “But” grows larger and larger in tandem with the story’s tension. A birthday-present misunderstanding yields to a happy ending involving footwear as headwear. The device of ending each page on a cliffhanger has been employed with greater skill and ease in similar titles, yet the sneaky conjunction will provide ample prompts for teachers and parents hoping to spark a bit of creativity in those young charges who will enjoy predicting the nature of each “But.” Hamilton’s accompanying pen, ink and watercolor illustrations give the book the properly madcap air of gentle chaos the storyline requires.

The premise promises more than the delivery, BUT… there’s no denying that this tale of pirate foolishness is great good fun. (Picture book. 3-7)

THE GARDEN OF TIME

Hammer, Jill Illus. by Cohen, Zöe Skinner House (32 pp.) $15.00 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-55896-729-8

Can a book be too beautiful for its own good?

Hammer’s sentences sound nothing like ordinary speech.

The book is a poem, and every paragraph is packed with dense imagery. Like the best poetry, it teaches readers how to navigate it, but the lesson won’t come naturally to everyone. The sentences sound like this: “Always, there was a circle of sun and rain, night and day, seed and fruit, earth and sky. Always, the wind was with them to blow them toward the next season.” The phrasing is so formal and stylized that some people may find themselves reading each sentence more than once. Readers who enjoy the challenge will appreciate the story, an extended metaphor in which a tour of the Garden of Eden represents the cycle of Jewish holidays. The imagery is striking: “Name this day Purim, the festival of good luck,” is a clear, blunt description of the holiday, but it’s also a surprising, complicated metaphor about the nature of Purim. Cohen’s painted illustrations are also packed with meaning, and some pages are filled with iconography from Coptic and Mesopotamian cultures.

Not everyone will appreciate a picture book that requires a glossary and a guide to iconography, but those who do may find that they need to read this one. (Picture book/religion. 6-10)

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CHARLIE BUMPERS VS. THE SQUEAKING SKULL

Harley, Bill Illus. by Gustavson, Adam Peachtree (176 pp.) $13.95 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-56145-808-0 Series: Charlie Bumpers, 3

Award-winning storyteller Harley serves up hilarious high jinks squirming with Halloween trouble.

Charlie Bumpers is back on the scene, scaring himself into another life lesson with his fourth-grade friends. Tommy and Charlie always take their pesky little sisters trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. This year, though, the boys make big plans to wangle an invitation to their friend Alex’s party. Every kid dreams of snatching up full-sized candy bars in those upscale neighborhoods. But when Charlie discovers that the scariest movie ever will be shown at the sleepover, panic ensues. In an effort to prepare Charlie for the movie, older brother Matt gleefully shares the story of Simon Purslip, the long-fingered man who snatched people off the streets. The emotions shown in Gustavson’s ink-and-wash illustrations propel the storytelling further. Harley deftly covers the territory of unintended consequences, as a boy with good intentions ends up with a stolen costume idea, scary stories every day of the week and even less candy than before. Readers will empathize with the fear of being the most frightened kid in the room. Charlie’s thoughts and feelings are universal, making his realistic situation a learning experience for more than just the main character.

Life is the best teacher, and if Charlie can survive all the troubles that come his way, maybe others can too.

(Fiction. 7-10)

WHAT’S SO YUMMY? All About Eating Well and Feeling Good

Harris, Robie H. Illus. by Westcott, Nadine Bernard Candlewick (32 pp.) $15.99 | Sep. 23, 2014 978-0-7636-3632-6 Series: Let’s Talk About You and Me, 4

The fourth installment in Harris and Westcott’s Let’s Talk About You and Me series lives up to its predecessors’ achievements in its plain talk about health.

Biracial siblings Gus and Nellie add chatty, speech-balloon commentary to the narrative text’s informational content about good nutrition and exercise habits. Meanwhile, cartoonish art provides a multicultural urban backdrop for their sojourn to a city garden, farmers market and supermarket as they prepare for a picnic with their parents and baby brother. Along the way, they drink water to stay hydrated and get exercise by walking, bicycling and riding a scooter, and they stop for a healthy snack

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when they need one. Art and text alike present diverse preferences, cultural influences and lifestyles with regard to diet to offer a variety of healthy options while also identifying foods and drinks that are unhealthy. A helpful section on food allergies stops short of acknowledging the life-threatening potential of some such conditions, but it introduces and validates the serious health implications of allergies and gluten intolerance.

Never shaming and always empowering, the book champions healthy choices as key to good living.

An informational title that seems good for you without being a pill to swallow. (Picture book. 3-8)

WORK An Occupational ABC

Hatanaka, Kellen Illus. by Hatanaka, Kellen Groundwood (40 pp.) $16.95 | $14.95 e-book | Aug. 12, 2014 978-1-55498-409-1 978-1-55498-410-7 e-book

Need inspiration for career day? Here’s one solution.

Hatanaka sets himself a challenge: pairing each of the 26 letters of the alphabet with an occupation. The one-word text naming the occupation is set against a graphically clean, deceptively simple scene that is representative of the type of work. A large letter is incorporated into the picture. B stands for “butcher.”

A man wearing an apron chases two raccoons that have run off with a string of sausages; a large B appears in the row of shop fronts in the background. L for “lumberjack” depicts a man swinging an axe at the top of a large letter L as a beaver gnaws at the bottom part. Most of the choices are unexpected and far from elementary: F for “forest ranger,” K for “K-9 officer,” N for “naval architect,” W for “wedding singer” and X for “xenologist.” A two-page key of “Want Ads” in the backmatter offers one-sentence descriptions for each career, but they tend to be rather too clever and are not always particularly helpful: “Ice cream vendor. This is a cool job with sweet benefits”; “Xenologist. This is a job that’s really out of this world.”

Nevertheless, the sophisticated design and use of white space give the book flair, and it can be an effective springboard for use in the classroom. (Picture book. 5-8)

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BENNY AND PENNY IN LOST AND FOUND

Hayes, Geoffrey Illus. by Hayes, Geoffrey TOON/Candlewick (40 pp.) $12.95 | Aug. 5, 2014 978-1-935179-64-1

Gently bickering mouse siblings Benny and Penny have another backyard adventure, this time when they search for Benny’s lost pirate hat.

As the book opens, Benny is in a real funk—“a BAD mood!”

His pirate hat is lost again, this time for two days. Mommy says he needs to stay outside until his good mood is restored. Equal parts helpful and hindering, Penny tags along on his quest, the fog-enshrouded backyard presenting a landscape it’s all too easy to imagine getting lost in. Over the course of this brief, comicbook story, the children explore a number of valences of lost and found. Benny loses Penny when she darts into the underbrush, having found her lost jump rope. He instructs her, “we need to be lost together.” When Penny frets that they are “REALLY lost,” Benny insists they aren’t: “We are right here.” Hayes also takes the opportunity to explore preschoolers’ mercurial emotions.

The sibs are effective emotional foils for each other, Penny’s buoyant cheer grating on Benny’s determined dudgeon before she becomes anxious, then angry, then sad and frightened. Benny’s brave decision to be in a good mood marks a literal turning point, bringing the little lost mice home again. Hayes’ coloredpencil panels keep their sunny charm even in the fog.

These sweet sibs show no signs of growing old—thank goodness. (Graphic early reader. 5-8)

I AM JAZZ

Herthel, Jessica; Jennings, Jazz Illus. by McNicholas, Shelagh Dial (32 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 4, 2014 978-0-8037-4107-2 An autobiographical picture book describes trans-youth activist Jazz Jennings’ story of embracing and asserting her transgender identity.

Both the title and the opening text proclaims, “I am Jazz!”

The book goes on to detail Jazz’s various interests and tastes, which follow traditionally feminine gender norms. But as Jazz goes on to explain, she has “a girl brain but a boy body. This is called transgender. I was born this way!” Although the realistic watercolor illustrations consistently display only happy faces in these beginning pages, the text recounts her family’s struggle to understand her early-childhood assertion of femininity: “At first my family was confused. They’d always thought of me as a boy.” Jazz recalls her pain when compelled to wear “boy clothes” in public. “Pretending I was a boy felt like telling a lie.” Her parents’ efforts to understand prompt them to meet with a doctor who introduces the word “transgender,” which enables the

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“Hiaasen’s fierce love for the wilds of Florida, his fundamental commitment to decency and his penchant for the bizarre are all on full display in this, a read as agreeable as his hero is.” from skink— no surrender

family’s powerful affirmation: “We understand now. Be who you are. We love you no matter what.” The story balances this acceptance with honest acknowledgement of others’ ongoing confusion and intermittent cruelty, and it briefly addresses Jazz’s exclusion from girls’ soccer in her state. Ultimately, Jazz’s self-acceptance, bolstered by her family’s support and advocacy, acts as a beacon for readers, trans- and cisgender alike.

An empowering, timely story with the power to help readers proclaim, in the words of Jazz’s parents, “We understand now.” (Picture book. 3 & up)

SKINK—NO SURRENDER

Hiaasen, Carl Knopf (288 pp.) $18.99 | $10.99 e-book | $21.99 PLB Sep. 23, 2014 978-0-375-87051-4 978-0-307-97406-8 e-book 978-0-375-97051-1 PLB If you were pursuing your cousin’s kidnapper across Florida, you would want a man like Skink at your side. Maybe.

Skink, as readers of Hiaasen’s novels for adults know, was once governor of Florida and is now a genially lawless reprobate who takes “eco-terrorism” to a whole new level. Richard first meets him completely buried in the sand on a beach lying in wait for a sea turtle–egg thief. That one extraordinary encounter turns into an unlikely partnership when Richard’s spirited cousin, Malley, runs off with a guy she met on the Internet in order to avoid boarding school, a joy ride that quickly goes sour.

On the road with Skink, Richard develops a taste for roadkill (Skink won’t eat any other kind of meat), learns how to drive (Skink injures his foot saving a baby skunk from a semi) and reads Silent Spring (Skink is horrified Richard hasn’t encountered it in school). They follow Malley’s cryptic cellphone clues into a swamp that just may be ivory-billed–woodpecker habitat for a classic Hiaasen showdown. While this confrontation goes on a bit too long, that doesn’t diminish the pleasure of the developing relationship between Skink and the fatherless Richard, as trusty a protagonist as ever was.

Hiaasen’s fierce love for the wilds of Florida, his fundamental commitment to decency and his penchant for the bizarre are all on full display in this, a read as agreeable as his hero is. (Fiction. 10-15)

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ZERAFFA GIRAFFA

Hofmeyr, Dianne Illus. by Ray, Jane Frances Lincoln (40 pp.) $17.99 | Aug. 15, 2014 978-1-84780-344-3

Stories of animal feats that sound as if they can’t possibly be true are always intriguing, and this tale is one that bears repeating.

While several children’s books have been written about the giraffe who sailed across the Mediterranean from Egypt and then walked from Marseilles to Paris, arriving in 1827 after three years, this version is written for a slightly younger age group than the others. In spite of limited details, the telling is lively and largely accords with the known facts. The pasha of Egypt charges his servant Atir, a young man who accompanies the giraffe and lives with her until her death in 1845, with delivering the unusual living present to King Charles X of France. The giraffe inspires all sorts of fashions, biscuits, topiary hedges and hairdos. The author’s note provides background and notes that the building, La Rotunde, constructed to house Zeraffa (in other accounts often called Belle) still exists. Unfortunately, there are no source notes. Whether Louise Marie Thérèse, the king’s granddaughter, really crept out each night to stand with Zeraffa and Atir, staring toward the African continent, is probably a matter of poetic license. The detail-filled paintings, bursting with boats on the Nile, French crowds and the giraffe’s accessories, will draw all eyes during group or individual readings.

Not a tall tale at all but a captivating bit of history.

(Picture book. 5-8)

WORK, DOGS, WORK A Highway Tail

Horvath, James Illus. by Horvath, James Harper/HarperCollins (40 pp.) $15.99 | Sep. 23, 2014 978-0-06-218970-7

A crew comprising cheerful, cartoonstyle canines and one cleverly camouflaged cat continues their construction careers in this third entry in an engaging series, following Dig, Dogs, Dig and Build, Dogs, Build (both 2013).

This time, the diligent dogs are working on a highway, both resurfacing a road and creating a new section of highway by blasting through a mountain with explosives. The newly built highway segment ends next to a river, so the dogs magically conjure up the design and materials needed for a new, four-lane bridge. There’s a gap in logic here that cuts out the role of the civil engineer and ignores the necessity of planning a major project of any sort in the real world, but these canine construction workers are so determined and doggone cheerful that their logical lapse must be overlooked. As in the previous volumes, construction vocabulary and geological terms are emphasized in the rhyming text, with a punchy quatrain on each page. Bold,

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“Narrated in a comfortingly authoritative voice that is reminiscent of storytelling around a winter’s hearth, this folkloric tale is rich with depth and tradition....” from winterfrost

computer-generated illustrations are filled with trucks, machinery, dogs in motion, and lots of gooey substances like asphalt and “mile after mile of / axle-deep muck.”

Big trucks, jovial dogs and snappy rhyming text serve again as the building blocks of another successful entry in this solidly built series. (Picture book. 3-8)

WINTERFROST

Houts, Michelle Candlewick (272 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-0-7636-6565-4 A magical middle-grade tale of a human child’s encounter with nisse folk—tiny gnomelike creatures who, legend has it, inhabit the houses, barns and woodlands of Denmark.

When 12-year-old Bettina Larsen is entrusted with the farm chores and the care of her infant sister, Pia—after an unexpected Christmas Eve phone call results in the hasty departure of her parents—she is proud of her ability to do both. But in the confusion of leaving, the Larsen family has neglected an important Danish Christmas Eve tradition: putting out rice pudding for the barn nisse. Bettina isn’t sure she believes in nisse, although her Farfar (grandfather) did—the only adult Bettina knows who did. But then strange things start happening at the Larsen farm (nisse are generally helpful, but they do like their Christmas Eve rice pudding). When Pia goes missing after a nap, Bettina searches in the woods behind the farm, where she discovers a nisse family that helps her find her sister, and in the process, Bettina helps them heal an old family rift. Narrated in a comfortingly authoritative voice that is reminiscent of storytelling around a winter’s hearth, this folkloric tale is rich with depth and tradition and full of a child’s wonder of the natural world. Alternating chapters tell the tale from young nisse Klakke’s point of view.

A timeless story that upholds and nurtures the magical worlds of nature and childhood. (Fantasy. 8-12)

THE ELEVATOR GHOST

Huser, Glen Illus. by Innerst, Stacy Groundwood (168 pp.) $14.95 | $9.95 paper | Aug. 12, 2014 978-1-55498-425-1 978-1-55498-426-8 paper Rumors abound that the Blatchford Arms is haunted—just the kind of place where a quirky babysitter like Carolina Giddle can brew her ghost tales for a cauldron of young apartment dwellers.

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comes up a bit unseasoned. Carolina Giddle arrives at the Blatchford Arms with a bang. She drives a knickknack-laden VW Bug (aptly named Trinket), carries around her companion tarantula, Chiquita, in his cage, and holds heartwarming conversations with her beloved aunt Beulah and her friend Grace, who both happen to be ghosts. The apartment building overflows with young trickor-treaters in need of attention and supervision. With her gift for storytelling and setting the right mood, Carolina Giddle enchants them with eerie stories they can’t resist. Each tale mirrors the children’s woes or flaws, such as Hubert’s fear of the dark or Galina’s habit of ruining her artist father’s canvasses. Although the tales are well-told, entertaining stand-alone stories, they offer predictability (the children become more well-behaved after listening) instead of a sense of memorable wit and enlightenment. The ending may leave readers wondering if they’ve missed something.

This creepy gathering of stories creates buzz and possibility but in the end falls short. (Fiction. 8-12)

PAY IT FORWARD

Hyde, Catherine Ryan Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster (288 pp.) $17.99 | $6.99 paper | Aug. 19, 2014 978-1-4814-0941-4 978-1-4814-0940-7 paper A lesson for middle schoolers about the power of a good idea to change the world.

What’s the secret to making the world a better place? Apparently, it has a lot to do with math. Give Trevor McKinney a calculator, and he’ll show you how doing people favors and requiring only that they pass those favors on to three more people can soon create a movement of beneficial behavior that touches the entire world.

But it’s not so easy to convince his classmates, teacher and mom, not to mention strangers, who are stymied by an ingrained suspicion of the honor system and its failings. It’s only when an intrepid journalist makes several connections among stories that Trevor’s idea gets the attention it deserves. But a serious altercation may prove that doing good is too dangerous. This new version of the best-selling adult book by the same name delivers a message of hope and possibility to middle schoolers, who will find Trevor an interesting and identifiable character.

The parts of the book that handle the relationship between Trevor’s teacher and his mom will be less compelling for young readers, who may find the vagaries of adult love too...vague.

Other secondary characters are vibrant and add both humor and necessary tension to the story.

A mostly satisfying book that offers young readers an important alternative worldview and a vision of responsible activism. (Fiction. 11-15)

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ISSUN BÔSHI The One-Inch Boy

Icinori Illus. by Icinori Little Gestalten (40 pp.) $19.95 | Aug. 1, 2014 978-3-89955-718-3

Action and character take a back seat to the art in this tersely retold version of the Japanese “Tom Thumb.”

The story, presented in blocks of small type surrounded by acres of white or monochrome space, minimizes specific cultural or place markers but sticks to the standard plotline. In “a country far away,” a peasant couple sees a wish fulfilled with the birth of a tiny lad who later sets out for adventure. On the way to a city, he meets an ogre who promises to use a magic hammer to give him full height in exchange for a certain “beautiful treasure.”

Issun demurs, then goes on to become playmate for a nobleman’s daughter. She, after he rescues her from the ogre and uses the hammer on himself to grow, takes “a different view of Issun Bôshi,” so that “their story is not yet over.” The illustrations are as allusive as this final line—alternating stylized landscapes with scenes of theatrically posed figures clad in a mix of Japanese and Western dress and ending not with a view of the principals but a generic assemblage of items from earlier pictures. Looking like a series of screen or woodblock prints, the dazzling art features broad, opaque layers of high-contrast orange, blue and yellow with combed or rubbed portions to give the flat surfaces shading and texture.

A classic underdog tale frequently outshone by the strong shapes and intense colors that each page turn brings into view. (Picture book/folk tale. 6-8)

TOOLING AROUND Crafty Creatures and the Tools They Use Jackson, Ellen Illus. by Benoit, Renné Charlesbridge (32 pp.) $17.95 | $7.95 paper | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-58089-564-4 978-1-58089-565-1 paper

The use of tools by nonhuman animals is explored via 11 animals, each with its own watercolor portrait, rhymed couplet and explanatory gloss.

Unfortunately, in the attempt to rhyme, most of the couplets fail to be clear or memorable. Even the prose is not always clear, as in “Elephants strip leaves from branches. They use the stripped branches to swat flies or other insects that bite them.”

(Are the “other insects” attacking the flies or the elephants?)

The author’s note is equally difficult to read, perhaps attempting, but failing, to adapt to beginning readers. Probably the best |

verse—and also the most whimsical art—is this: “Here’s a deer who’s quite well dressed, / wearing grass to look his best.” The single sentence that follows adds, anthropomorphically, “Male red deer smear their antlers with mud or grass to appear bigger and fiercer to other males and more attractive to females.”

The sturdy stag is staring into the distance, its antlers interlaced with ferns and grasses. Depictions of flora and fauna show excellent composition and promising, if overworked, artistry, but at the book’s beginning and end, awkward paintings of children sadly match dismally unimaginative verses: “Tools help us everywhere, / on the earth and in the air.” Alas: Where are the limericks of yore, with the pelican whose “bill can hold more than his belican”?

The layout and concept deserve better material. (author’s note, list of animals’ habitat ranges, resources for children, bibliography) (Informational picture book. 4-8)

THE HISTORY OF MONEY From Bartering to Banking

Jenkins, Martin Illus. by Kitamura, Satoshi Candlewick (64 pp.) $16.99 | Aug. 1, 2014 978-0-7636-6763-4

A snappy course in the evolution of exchange.

Jenkins is thorough but not so thorough as to make the dismal science dismal to his readers. He offers lively explanations for barter, then refinements on the bartering system and the moment when parties agreed upon a medium of exchange: wampum, gemstones—and gold, in all its luster, its malleability, its exquisiteness. From there, he takes readers to weights and measures; banks, black markets and usury; interest earned and interest paid; inflation and deflation; crashes and runs on banks.

Maybe because there has been enough already, Jenkins steers clear of loan-sharking and what happens when you can’t pay your debt. It’s all related in a simple, colloquial style that will keep readers engaged: “Wouldn’t it be handy if you could swap your goat for something easy to keep and carry around and that everybody wanted?” The text is urged along by the fine illustrations of Kitamura, which sometimes hint at the old Johnny Hart comic strip “B.C.,” with its touch of subversive humor.

Jenkins closes with a caution: “[T]here’s a danger that you start believing that buying and selling are the only important things in life”—how many economics textbooks include that?

A thoughtful and entertaining story of how we got from trading a pig for a sack of rye to “Chapter Fifteen: In which we discover how easy it is for money to disappear.” (author’s note, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 9-12)

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LOVE IS THE DRUG

Johnson, Alaya Dawn Levine/Scholastic (352 pp.) $17.99 | $17.99 e-book | Sep. 30, 2014 978-0-545-41781-5 978-0-545-66289-5 e-book Lost memories, a deadly pandemic flu and the children of D.C.’s elite come together in this sophisticated bio-thriller.

When Emily Bird wakes up in the hospital, the last thing she remembers is attending a party at a senator’s home eight days earlier. She’s told she had an accident after taking some bad designer drugs, but a threatening visit from a national security contractor whom Bird met at the party suggests the truth isn’t so simple.

Meanwhile, the entire Beltway is under an oppressive and alltoo-believable quarantine and curfew thanks to a virulent new strain of flu. Bird’s parents, two prominent black scientists, want her to avoid trouble after her misadventure, but she can’t resist investigating. She finds an unlikely ally in Coffee, a diplomat’s son who uses drugs and deals them to others but who also sees strength in Bird that she struggles to see in herself.

Johnson, who astounded with her cyberpunk teen debut, The Summer Prince (2013), immerses readers in the complexities of Bird’s world, especially her fraught relationship with her parents and the intersections of race and class at her elite prep school. The often lyrical third-person, present-tense narration, the compelling romance and the richly developed cast of characters elevate this novel far above more formulaic suspense fare.

Utterly absorbing. (Suspense. 13 & up)

THANKSGIVING FOR EMILY ANN

Johnston, Teresa Illus. by Brantley-Newton, Vanessa Cartwheel/Scholastic (32 pp.) $6.99 paper | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-545-43413-3 A kid’s perspective on Thanksgiving Day points out all the inconveniences of

the holiday.

Emily Ann counts her woes instead of her blessings on this particular Thanksgiving: Her brother’s mean, her sister’s interested only in makeup and magazines, everyone is too busy with preparations to play with her, and visiting, snoring Grandpa takes her bed, relegating her to the floor. So, the devious Emily Ann decides to play a prank that will get everyone’s attention.

Just as she is enacting her plan, a comment from her mother about what she perceives as Emily Ann’s helpfulness unrealistically causes a complete turnabout in Emily Ann’s attitude.

“And there in that room, / Emily Ann saw the truth. / Her family had come together; / from Uncle Mark to little Ruth….And she was a piece of it, / from her top to her toes. // They really 108

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didn’t matter, all her Thanksgiving woes.” Johnston’s verses sometimes sacrifice ease of reading for the rhyme scheme and meter, but the shortness of the text is good for younger listeners. Brantley-Newton’s illustrations capture the familiar sights of a family Thanksgiving, though Emily Ann’s facial expressions are rather static.

While there are few books that even mention kids’ complaints about the November holiday, the majority of Thanksgiving-themed books address gratitude much more meaningfully (and realistically). (Picture book. 3-5)

HALF A WORLD AWAY

Kadohata, Cynthia Atheneum (240 pp.) $16.99 | $10.99 e-book | Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-4424-1275-0 978-1-4424-1277-4 e-book Four years ago, Jaden, 12, was adopted from Romania, but he still grieves for the birth mother who abandoned him; accompanying his parents to Kazakhstan to adopt his new brother, Jaden’s confused feelings intensify.

Jaden doesn’t remember his biological mother, and memories of the years between her abandonment and his adoption are vague but horrific. He’s learned to use his passionate interest in electricity to calm himself. After years of therapy, he’s stopped setting fires, but he continues to hoard food and to steal. He recognizes that his behaviors cause his parents pain and exhaustion. In Kazakhstan, everyone’s expectations are upended. As his parents struggle to accept new adoption ground rules, Jaden befriends a toddler and the prickly driver assigned to his family, with whom he finds common ground. Kadohata excels at turning complicated realities into compelling middle-grade fiction, but this is difficult narrative terrain. Children traumatized by abandonment, abuse and neglect; well-intentioned but naïve affluent parents adopting children in impoverished countries where corruption is rife: These subjects challenge adult comprehension. No surprise then that distilling these matters into compact storytelling for young readers proves problematic.

Much-needed exposition slows the pace, yet troubling questions remain: Jaden’s parents don’t question the ethics of an adoption that requires paying a facilitator $14,000 in crisp new $100 bills, even after things go wrong.

Despite flaws, a realistic—and much-needed—portrait of older-child adoption. (Fiction. 10-14)

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“Though the ongoing plotlines and large cast make familiarity with earlier outings a necessity, this one still features a crowd-pleasing blend of lively dialogue..., easy-to-follow, nonstop action, elves, robots and derring-do....” from escape from lucien

YOU ARE (NOT) SMALL Kang, Anna Illus. by Weyant, Christopher Two Lions (32 pp.) $16.99 | Aug. 5, 2014 978-1-4778-4772-5

Fuzzy, bearlike creatures of different sizes relate to one another in an amusing story that explores the relative

nature of size.

A small purple creature meets a similarly shaped but much larger orange critter. The purple creature maintains that the orange creature is “big”; the orange one counters by calling the purple one “small.” This continues, devolving into a very funny shouting match, pages full of each type of creature hollering across the gutter. This is followed by a show-stopping doublepage spread depicting two huge, blue legs and the single word “Boom!” in huge display type. Tiny, pink critters then float down by parachute, further complicating the size comparisons. Eventually, these brightly colored animals learn to see things in a different way. In the end, they decide they are all hungry and trudge off to eat together. The story is told effectively with just a few words per page, though younger readers might need help understanding the size and perspective concepts. Cartoon-style illustrations in ink and watercolor use simple shapes with heavy black outlines set off by lots of white space, with an oversized format and large typeface adding to the spare but polished design. While the story itself seems simple, the concepts are pertinent to several important social issues such as bullying and racism, as well as understanding point of view.

Charming characters, a clever plot and a quiet message tucked inside a humorous tale. (Picture book. 4-8)

ESCAPE FROM LUCIEN

Kibuishi, Kazu Illus. by Kibuishi, Kazu Graphix/Scholastic (256 pp.) $12.99 paper | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-545-43315-0 Series: Amulet, 6

still features a crowd-pleasing blend of lively dialogue (“And I don’t care what the prophecies say. You’re still a slacker”), easy-to-follow, nonstop action, elves, robots and derring-do amid awesome sound effects (“D-DOOOM SHHAAAAAA,” “SZRAK!”). Most of the cleanly drawn, lushly backgrounded panels focus on faces, with occasional full-spread scenes adding dramatic visual highlights.

A page-turner that gives the heroic Stonekeepers plenty of chances to show their stuff and moves the main story along an inch or two. (Graphic fantasy. 10-12)

HIDER, SEEKER, SECRET KEEPER

Kiem, Elizabeth Soho Teen (272 pp.) $17.99 | $9.99 e-book | Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-61695-412-3 978-1-61695-413-0 e-book A tangled web of intrigue ensnares three generations of Bolshoi ballerinas.

Lana, the daughter and granddaughter of dancers, goes on tour with the Bolshoi even as she is accused of hiring a hit man to injure her rival. Traveling from Moscow to New York City’s Lincoln Center to the Russian enclave in Brooklyn, she slowly and painfully uncovers the truth about her family. Descriptions of her starring role, a four-minute solo from Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring called “Danse Sacrale,” are skillfully woven into the narrative in a nice thematic counterpoint to Lana’s story. Kiem continues the story she started in Dancer, Daughter, Traitor, Spy (2013), and those who have read it will empathize with the difficult journey that Lana makes as she battles murderous backstage rivalry.

Those new to the saga will uncover a multifaceted and moving story of a family caught up in the horrors of Soviet life and the uncertainties of post-Communist Russia. The author liberally uses Russian phrases that are not necessarily intuitive to translate and require frequent back and forth to the glossary.

Russian secrets, treachery and strong family ties pulsate and captivate in this complex tale. (cast of characters and historical figures) (Thriller. 13-18)

Wraithlike attackers force a mass evacuation and a cryptic prophecy’s meaning begins to clear in this headlong continuation of Kibuishi’s deservedly popular series.

The action picks up in midflight as Navin and companions survive the destruction of their giant robot suits, then help the fleeing survivors of the city of Lucien by fighting a rear-guard action against swarms of diaphanous, cat-eyed, zombie-making Dark Scouts. Meanwhile Emily, Trellis and Vigo reluctantly join traitorous elf Max Griffin in another visit to the Voice’s realm of memories that leads to the death of a major character—along with a rescue, reunions with old friends and a leadin to the next episode. Though the ongoing plotlines and large cast make familiarity with earlier outings a necessity, this one |

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“...Krull doesn’t shy away from some deplorable, stomach-turning facts, which kids will devour and use to spice up staid homework assignments.” from lives of the explorers

GOLDIE TAKES A STAND! Golda Meir’s First Crusade

Krasner, Barbara Illus. by Garrity-Riley, Kelsey Kar-Ben (32 pp.) $17.95 | $7.95 paper | $7.95 e-book Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-4677-1200-2 978-1-4677-1201-9 paper 978-1-4677-1202-6 e-book

A group of school friends provides Golda Meir with her first leadership test.

Golda is the child of Russian-Jewish immigrants living in Milwaukee when she becomes active in the American Young Sisters Society. As their president, Golda tasks them to raise money to buy new textbooks for classmates. The neighborhood is very poor, and pennies are precious to the shoppers who patronize her parents’ store, so it’s no easy feat. The young girl is highly motivated and struggles to write a speech for a fundraiser, finally deciding to “speak from my heart.” The event is a success, and Golda immediately decides to found a new group and “be [its] president!” In her first book for children, Krasner presents a pleasantly fictionalized story about a future world leader. Garrity-Riley’s digitally manipulated gouache-and-collage illustrations are a nice accompaniment featuring wallpaper backgrounds and fashionable period clothing. However the overall effect, with so many washed-out browns and blues, is drab. Pale circles of cheek blush on the characters bring to mind pages from a shopping catalog. Stopping short of Meir’s Zionist passion and move to Palestine, the book forces readers to consult the biographical note to understand why Goldie is important beyond the story.

Readers who pursue the context will discover that the girl who became an Israeli prime minister had a social conscience. (photographs, places to visit, bibliography) (Picture book. 6-8)

LIVES OF THE EXPLORERS Discoveries, Disasters (and What the Neighbors Thought)

Krull, Kathleen Illus. by Hewitt, Kathryn HMH Books (96 pp.) $20.99 | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-15-205910-1 Series: What the Neighbors Thought

Another in the popular What the Neighbors Thought series, this title tells of daring, curious, hardy men (mostly) and women from different countries and eras who took bold risks in uncharted territories out of senses of adventure, curiosity and mission.

As a result of their courage, new maps and routes were developed; new animals, plants and merchandise were discovered—and the world changed irrevocably. Some subjects are well-known, others not so much. As with the series’ other 110

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offerings, kids will discover enticing bits about both unfamiliar explorers and those they thought they knew: Magellan was a nasty piece of work, Capt. Cook forced sauerkraut on his crew, and one of Lewis and Clark’s team mistook Lewis for an elk and shot him. The straightforward, accessible prose makes for fast reading, and Krull doesn’t shy away from some deplorable, stomach-turning facts, which kids will devour and use to spice up staid homework assignments. Some chapters end with an “Onward” feature that includes additional facts about the explorer. Hewitt’s colorful acrylic caricatures capture each adventurer’s spirit with specific details of attire, locale and, in many cases, mode of transport. Maps of many of the journeys are included; there’s no index.

Readers will enjoy delving into the exploits of intrepid explorers across time and, literally, space. (Collective biography. 9-12)

EVIDENCE OF THINGS NOT SEEN

Lane, Lindsey Farrar, Straus and Giroux (240 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 16, 2014 978-0-374-30060-9 When a high school boy obsessed with quantum physics suddenly disappears, friends and neighbors reveal details of their lives as they speculate on his whereabouts.

When Tommy Smythe’s abandoned motorbike is found by the side of the road in a clearing known as the Stillwell pullout, the local sheriff begins his investigation by questioning residents of the small Texas town. The first-person interviews are interspersed with third-person stories of others who had nominally come into contact with Tommy or the pullout, as well as excerpts from Tommy’s journal, in which he wrote his musings about parallel universes. Tommy’s disappearance serves as an unsubtle metaphor for the alienation and frustration found in the lives of the people around him, who also sometimes wish they could vanish or escape to another dimension. Among these are Kimmie Jo, who is tired of not having her Mexican heritage recognized; Alvin, who wants to break free from his abusive father; Jake, who doesn’t know if he’s brave enough to leave the family farm for college; and Tara, who is trying to forgive her dead father for the secret double life that led to his murder.

While the novel’s concept and structure are thought-provoking, the prose is often repetitive and mundane.

Still, readers interested in physics or drawn to character-driven stories may find something here to like, even though Tommy and his fate remain ciphers. (Fiction. 14-18)

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DEAR WANDERING WILDEBEEST And Other Poems from the Water Hole Latham, Irene Illus. by Wadham, Anna Millbrook (32 pp.) $17.95 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-4677-1232-3

A poetic celebration of animal life found in the African grasslands.

Inspired by wildlife photographer Greg du Toit, who submerged himself in a Kenyan water hole to capture glimpses of the creatures gathering there, Latham and illustrator Wadham showcase the splendors of that world in this riveting picturebook tribute. Through spare lyric poems and brief but illuminating prose descriptions set within warm, subdued-toned spreads, the duo invite young readers to explore the importance of the water hole for no fewer than 15 species who congregate at this vital life source. Unusual beasts with sonorous names like impala, oxpecker, nightjar and wildebeest all come to drink, sometimes risking life and limb when met by dangerous snakes—“Puff adder / hisses— / rarely misses”—who also frequent the water hole to survive. In an effort to ward off other would-be predators, including the unrelenting African sun, a “rugby tangle” of frolicking zebras or a herd of elephants luxuriating in a “dust bath at dusk” may be spotted, all hoping to evade the services of the “mean-eyed marabou,” the baldheaded carrion-eating stork. Latham’s finely crafted verse, at once humorous and serious, dazzlingly opens the imagination to the wilds of the world.

Enlightening and engaging, a thrilling panorama of the diversity to be found throughout the animal kingdom. (glossary, further reading) (Picture book/poetry. 8-12)

WATCH OUT, HOLLYWOOD! More Confessions of a Socalled Middle Child

Lennon, Maria T. Harper/HarperCollins (240 pp.) $16.99 | $9.99 e-book | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-06-212693-1 978-0-06-212695-5 e-book Series: Confessions of a So-called Middle Child, 2

Turned Selfless Do-gooder,” but real life is more complicated than that for Lennon’s initially unlikable protagonist. While it is true that Marta’s true talent and calling is gymnastics and the Junior Olympics serves her long-term interests best, she also has an opportunity to audition for the same television role as Charlie. To prevent this from happening, Charlie, in an unconvincing scene, lies. Charlie’s falsehood is discovered, poisoning her popularity, disappointing her family and turning off the boy of her dreams. How Charlie takes her lumps and works to make everything right is the crux of this amusing tale, which gains momentum and readers’ sympathies as the story progresses.

Lennon’s over-the-top tale and larger-than-life characters and situations aren’t exactly credible, but readers who like their characters big and brash will suspend their disbelief and enjoy. (Fiction. 7-11)

ANIMALS WORK

Lewin, Ted Illus. by Lewin, Ted Holiday House (24 pp.) $14.95 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-0-8234-3040-6 Series: I Like to Read Mechanization is not in sight in this look at how animals still help humans at

work and at play.

Expansive double-page spreads present an international array of animals as they assist humans in a variety of jobs. The book’s opening page portrays a dog herding sheep, and it continues with horses, camels, donkeys, reindeer, oxen, a goat and an elephant all carrying or pulling. Then a spirit of back and forth comes into play as “Sheep mow” and “Llamas keep sheep safe.” Finally, a boy happily holds his cat in his arms and takes very good care of him. Some of the animals, such as the camels, the elephant and the reindeer, are portrayed in their native habitats with the humans who direct them. The goat pulls a cart with a bunny rabbit nestled securely inside, while the sheep and the llamas stand proudly on a carpet of green. Lewin masterfully combines realism with child appeal in his expressive watercolors. His short, declarative sentences with repeating verbs will encourage emerging readers. A map of the world at the end of the book highlights where this globe-trotting author/illustrator saw the animals; helpful indeed.

Inviting. (Early reader. 2-6)

A 12-year-old girl with big dreams struggles to reconcile her towering ambition with the demands of just being a good person.

Charlie C. Cooper, a smart, strong-minded fashionista and computer whiz, needs to figure out how to win a starring role in a new television series about a girls’ gymnastics team while at the same time getting her on-again, off-again friend, Marta Urloff, a spot on the school team for the Junior Olympics. Recent television coverage has billed Charlie an “Ex-bully, |

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EVERYTHING IS A POEM The Best of J. Patrick Lewis

Lewis, J. Patrick Illus. by Pritelli, Maria Cristina Creative Editions/Creative Company (88 pp.) $24.99 | Aug. 19, 2014 978-1-56846-240-0

An engaging collection of greatest hits by the former U.S. Children’s Poet Laureate.

In the foreword to his latest collection, the award-winning author of 85 picture books and former economics professor admits he discovered poetry only after turning 40 and prides himself on not having a distinctive poetic style or voice. For Lewis, “the poem is always more important than the poet,” and the varied subjects of these 60-odd poems underscore the sincerity of his belief. Here, with Italian illustrator Pritelli’s arrestingly evocative airbrushed acrylic spreads, Lewis offers light glimpses into the realms of animals, places, people, nature and reading, as well as a delightful mix of riddles and epitaphs. Taking his cue from the likes of Carroll and Lear, Lewis thrills in nonsense, imploring readers, “Please bury me in the library / with a dozen long-stemmed proses,” or neatly summing up on a baseball-glove-shaped tombstone the truncated life of a pitcher: “No runs, / no hits, / no heirs.” In more serious moments, Lewis employs his masterful descriptive abilities to capture natural phenomena such as fireflies—“The speckled air / Of summer stars / Alive in jars”—while repeatedly making use of his exquisite ear.

For beginning readers on up, the points of attachment are many in this hefty volume of mostly light verse. (Poetry.

6-12)

MONSTROUS AFFECTIONS An Anthology of Beastly Tales Link, Kelly; Grant, Gavin J.–Eds. Candlewick (480 pp.) $22.99 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-7636-6473-2

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STAR GIRL

Littlewood, Karin Illus. by Littlewood, Karin Frances Lincoln (28 pp.) $17.99 | Aug. 15, 2014 978-1-84780-146-3 Can a little girl keep her favorite star?

Every night, Gracie can see her star shining brightly from her window. But in the morning, it’s always gone. She misses it, so one night she creeps into the nearby forest and climbs to the very top of the tallest tree. By stretching out her hand, she can just reach her star. She takes it home, but it loses its luster there. Gracie puts on her most shimmering outfit and dances all around, but this doesn’t bring the glimmer back. That night, she takes it outside, but when the sky lights up, her star remains dim. She puts it in the company of fireflies and sets it among sea stars, “[b]ut it just lay there sadly.” Finally, with all her strength, Gracie throws the star as far into the sky as she can. That night, her star is back, shining in the sky. Just as her star belongs there, she belongs at home, watching it. Littlewood’s tale nicely captures childhood imagination, and her watercolors lend it an extra layer of dreaminess. Blonde, pigtailed Gracie is an appealing blend of wonder and determination, and the landscapes she inhabits are lovely.

Warm and sweet. (Picture book. 4-7)

JELLY BEAN

Short stories with otherworldly creatures may be a dime a dozen, but rarely do they offer such nuanced scope.

Link and Grant, who edited the fantasy half of The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror anthology until its demise in 2009, know their way around excellent short fiction, and their editorial skills are on display here. From the light(ish) and delightful to the subversively unromantic, from humor to horror, each entry both tells a good story and says something about monstrousness. “This Whole Demoning Thing” posits a world of demons but demonstrates that sometimes the greatest power is just being yourself; “Wings in the Morning” and “A Small Wild Magic” are laced with romance regardless of species, while “The Woods Hide in Plain Sight” takes the “girl meets vampire, finds 112

eternal love” trope and turns it inside out. On the other end of the spectrum, “Son of Abyss” and “Mothers Lock Up Your Daughters Because They Are Terrifying” guarantee cold shivers and probably nightmares, one through gore and the other through psychology. Standouts include Paolo Bacigalupi’s “Moriabe’s Children” and Holly Black’s “Ten Rules for Being an Intergalactic Smuggler (The Successful Kind),” both of which clearly prove that monstrous behavior is usually human in form.

An anthology of riches, even if they aren’t always fair of form. (introduction) (Anthology/horror/fantasy. 13 & up)

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Lord, Cynthia Illus. by McGuire, Erin Scholastic (128 pp.) $16.99 | $5.99 paper | $5.99 e-book Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-545-63596-7 978-0-545-63597-4 paper 978-0-545-63598-1 e-book Series: Shelter Pet Squad, 1

Although second-grader Suzannah loves pets, she can’t have one in her apartment, so the new Shelter Pet Squad sounds like the perfect alternative.

Second- to sixth-graders visit the shelter every Saturday to do nice things for the pets. With a careful eye toward realism, Lord has the shelter staff keep a believable distance between

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many of the animals and the children. The Squad creates clever treats for the dogs and cats and provides other simple services.

Suzannah feels an abiding need to make sure that Jelly Bean, a guinea pig new to the shelter, finds a good home, adding a small level of tension to the narrative. The group participates in helping her make that happen by writing a letter to the teachers at their school. Text is widely spaced, and chapters are brief.

McGuire’s realistic half- and full-page black-and-white illustrations of wide-eyed children and winsome pets nicely capture the generally upbeat mood. Advice on how to provide assistance to animal shelters—things children can readily accomplish—as well as instructions for the crafts in the book, information about guinea pigs (with the suggestion to visit the library for more information) and a pledge for honorary Pet Squad members are all included as backmatter.

Pet lovers will enjoy this brief, quietly attractive series opener. (Fiction. 6-8)

RORY’S PROMISE

MacColl, Michaela; Nichols, Rosemary Calkins Creek/Boyds Mills (288 pp.) $16.95 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-62091-623-0 Series: Hidden Histories This first in the Hidden Histories series of middle-grade novels highlights an episode in which New York City’s Foundling Hospital sent white youth to unfamiliar Arizona Territory to be adopted by Mexican Catholics, raising the ire of Protestant Anglos and revealing the depths of their prejudice.

Ever since Rory Fitzpatrick and her baby sister, Violet, arrived at the Foundling after their parents died, Rory has worked to remain with Vi. It seems for naught when Sister Anna decides to send Vi west to be placed. Rather than lose her last family member, Rory stows away on the train, appearing only when she cannot be sent back. It’s a good thing, too, as the nuns cannot care for the tots without Rory’s help. And when they arrive in Clifton to a riot caused by desperate, angry white women, only Rory fully understands the threat. Although Rory’s heroism is improbable, youngsters will find it heartening. Rory escapes when kidnapped, then negotiates a deal to secure safe passage for the majority of orphans and nuns—all before the happy ending. The injustice, drama and action will have readers riveted. A historical note sheds some light on the complicated issues. However, why so many women gave up their babies will warrant discussion, given Rory’s conflicted view of the matter (she makes a somewhat disturbing distinction between being an orphan and a foundling).

Despite this point, children will find this an exciting, eye-opening read. (Historical fiction. 9-11)

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BUNNY THE BRAVE WAR HORSE Based on a True Story

MacLeod, Elizabeth Illus. by Lafrance, Marie Kids Can (32 pp.) $16.95 | Aug. 1, 2014 978-1-77138-024-9

Can a horse named Bunny ever be a war horse?

It’s World War I, and horses, especially police horses, are needed for the war effort. Canada is a long way from the battlefields of Belgium, but Bunny the police horse and police officers Thomas and Bud Dundas, brothers, join the war effort. On the very first day, men and horses are put to the test with mustard gas. It’s clear that Bunny is up to the challenge. Bunny is assigned to Bud, and together, they deliver messages and carry wounded soldiers off the battlefields. Other horses are shown pulling ambulances and artillery. The gravity of war is made clear, especially when Bud is killed in combat, leaving brother Tom bereft. Bunny and Tom team up and are still alive at the end of the war. Gentle, muted tones provide the right balance for this historically rooted tale of bravery, loss and love. Though the skyline might show puffs of smoke left over from shelling, the foreground tells the story of the dedication of both horse and rider. The final spread, though lit with the hope of the war’s end, is tinged with sadness: Bunny, like all the war horses from Canada, has been sold to farmers in Belgium, and Tom voyages home alone. The endnotes provide ample extra information for young historians.

Emotionally charged but never manipulative, Bunny’s story and the story of World War I bravery will not be soon forgotten. (map) (Picture book. 6-10)

EGG & SPOON

Maguire, Gregory Candlewick (496 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-7636-7220-1 Two girls switch identities while colliding with Baba Yaga and the Firebird in Czarist Russia.

Elena, a child of rural Russian poverty in the town of Miersk, is desperate to help her ailing mother and to recover her older brothers, Alexei, at work for another family, and Luka, conscripted into the czar’s army. Her determined journey finds her life suddenly swapped with that of Ekaterina, also 13, a daughter of privilege.

Plot details include a pilgrimage to Saint Petersburg to meet the czar and his godson, Prince Anton, a Fabergé egg, a Firebird’s egg, a legacy of matryoshka dolls, and the powerful presence and proclamations of Baba Yaga. Maguire, a veteran writer of reimagined traditional tales for a new world, jauntily explores themes no less profound than hunger and satiety, class and influence, and the sharing of resources in a world wracked by climate

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“With plentiful details about the scientific work, photographs showing scientists and their tiny subjects, clear explanations, and an organization that is both topical and chronological, this title brings science to life.” from the case of the vanishing little brown bats

change. While not without flaws—a bit protracted, cluttered, overly grand and infused with some metafictive moments that occasionally take the reader out of the story—this is an epic rich with references, aphorisms and advice.

An ambitious, Scheherazade-ian novel, rather like a nesting-doll set of stories, that succeeds in capturing some of the complexities of both Russia and life itself. (Historical fantasy. 12 & up)

IN THIS BOOK ARE THINGS IN THINGS

Marceau, Fani Illus. by Jolivet, Joëlle Chronicle (94 pp.) $17.99 | Aug. 5, 2014 978-1-4521-2588-6

The French duo that collaborated on the foldout book Panorama (2009) returns with another visually exciting collection of images, this time bound traditionally.

Each page—and an occasional double-page spread—contains a linocut presenting an arresting, tactile composition. A white bird rests in a nest built from chiseled diagonals, short blue lines cradling the creature against the black tree; a train, inferable from the clues of distant lights in a tunnel, approaches readers from under an arch of brown bricks above, with pebbles and track below. There is much to peruse and describe with a baby or by a young child, and readers in the know will recognize animals from Jolivet’s previous books. The text, however, is less successful. The need for the repetitive first-person declarations is questionable: “I am in the apricot, said the pit. / I am in the bed, said the teddy bear”). Perhaps the somnolent syntax is intended to induce the sleep depicted in the final scene of a father holding his son, who’s clasping a book—this book.

Maybe it is all meant to climax in the resulting multiple meanings of “And me, I am in your arms!”

Minus variance in prepositions, relationship among pages or discernible story arc (except for a conclusion), this feels more like a museum stroll than a coherent picture book—stimulating but not wholly satisfying. (Picture book. 3-5)

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THE EMERALD SHORE

Mariconda, Barbara Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins (336 pp.) $16.99 | $9.99 e-book | Sep. 30, 2014 978-0-06-211996-4 978-0-06-211998-8 e-book Series: Voyage of Lucy P. Simmons, 3 Lucy and her family and friends conclude their saga in an Ireland of foggy mists and sparkling rainbows.

In The Voyage of Lucy P. Simmons (2012), Lucy lost her parents and saw her Maine home transformed into a glorious sailing vessel. She then sailed from Maine to Australia, pirates in close pursuit, as she searched for her aunt in Lucy at Sea (2013). In this exciting finale to the trilogy, Lucy arrives on Clare Island off the western coast of Ireland, hoping at last to find the lost family treasure and end the family curse. She still has her father’s magical flute and a magical deck of cards. It is not an easy quest, though, what with a fluttering, fast-talking fairy, a malevolent Grey Man and the same greedy pirates close at hand. Clare Island is, after all, the home of the legendary pirate queen Gracie O’Malley. Lucy reunites with all the folk from the two previous volumes and meets a cailleach, Miss Oonagh, straight from Irish folklore. In spite of all the familiar clues plus a mysterious new one, the treasure remains elusive. Mariconda does a neat job of tying up all the threads, adds a first kiss for Lucy and gives readers a satisfying if slightly dangerous conclusion.

A grand and a good finale for Lucy et al. (Historical fantasy.

8-12)

THE CASE OF THE VANISHING LITTLE BROWN BATS A Scientific Mystery Markle, Sandra Millbrook/Lerner (48 pp.) $29.27 PLB | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-4677-1463-1 PLB

Since 2007, with the first reports of hibernating bats dying in large numbers, scientists have worked from various angles to find the cause and cure, racing against the possibility of extinction.

As she did for golden frogs and honeybees (The Case of the Vanishing…, 2011, 2013), veteran science educator Markle presents this disturbing disappearance as a mystery. She describes the search for clues in the bats’ physical environments, lifestyles and internal organs. Scientists descend into caves and mines to measure temperature and humidity. They use sophisticated lab tools to measure pesticide residues, culture fungi, search for viruses and compare DNA. Finding the cause, a fungus now called Pseudogymnoascus destructans, was not enough. How does Pd work to harm the bats? Where did it come from? Why are European bats relatively resistant? And what can researchers do to combat it or increase the resistance of our native North American bats? With plentiful details about the scientific work,

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photographs showing scientists and their tiny subjects, clear explanations, and an organization that is both topical and chronological, this title brings science to life. The extensive backmatter includes further facts about these amazing creatures, ways readers can help them, and outside resources as well as useful sources for further information.

The appealing design and presentation add value to this account of science in action. (glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 9-13)

I’M BRAVE!

McMullan, Kate Illus. by McMullan, Jim Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins (40 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-0-06-220318-2 The McMullans’ latest collaboration, following other transportation-themed books (plus a T. Rex), looks at the important job of a fire engine.

In informal, enjoyable language that mixes slang and street talk, an anthropomorphized (and very self-confident) fire engine introduces itself and all its equipment: “Wanna see what I’m packin’?” The book loosely follows the engine from a 911 call through its successfully putting out the (mostly nonscary) fire in a warehouse and then heading back to the station to care for the equipment and the truck. Vocabulary is introduced throughout.

“Transmitter? / Gimme the green! // Traffic? / I’m talkin’ to you! / Over to the curb— / I’m comin’ through!” While the invitation to match the names of tools with pictures of them may frustrate readers, who will want an answer key, observant children will find many (though not all) answers within the text. Though the engine does mention the fire fighters, they are strangely absent from the watercolor-and-gouache illustrations, which may be disappointing to those kids who aspire to firefighting careers— in reality, the truck is only another tool.

For those kids who dream of the station, the fire pole and the calls, this will be an exciting ride. (Picture book. 4-8)

ELSA AND THE NIGHT

Mellgren, Jöns Illus. by Mellgren, Jöns Little Gestalten (32 pp.) $19.95 | Aug. 1, 2014 978-3-89955-716-9

tending with beloved elephant companion Olaf and, later, alone. Following tears and a shared outing to Olaf ’s grave, she drops off at last, whereupon Night tenderly lifts her up and then passes back through town breathing cool winds and going “from house to house, tucking everyone into bed.” Elsa and the other city residents sport dot-eyed animal heads in Mellgren’s blocky, screen-printed scenes. Night starts off as a small, featureless blue blot but grows as the pages turn, ultimately acquiring stars and silhouetted buildings with lit windows as it spreads over emptied streets.

A subdued, mildly soporific bedtime story with sophisticated emotional and metaphorical levels to explore for those so inclined. (Picture book. 5-8)

I AM ALBERT EINSTEIN

Meltzer, Brad Illus. by Eliopoulos, Christopher Dial (40 pp.) $12.99 | Sep. 16, 2014 978-0-8037-4084-6 Series: Ordinary People Change the World The brilliant 20th-century scientist exhorts readers to keep asking questions.

Meltzer presents Einstein from birth through childhood and adulthood as one who always thought carefully before speaking and loved his head of hair. Apparently, one of the white-haired, mustachioed tot’s first sentences was: “My hair is so AWESOME!” As a young boy, he decides to figure out “Why did the universe behave the way it did?” From there, it is a fast trip to playing the violin, studying math and the famous equation E=mc2, which is not well-explained in the text. Of far greater importance is the exhortation that readers should value curiosity, difference and learning—all of which could lead to inspiration. There is no backmatter and no sourcing for a concluding quotation, but two pages of photographs are credited.

The author provides no additional biographical information about Einstein’s incredibly multifaceted life. Eliopoulos’ digitally rendered cartoon illustrations are caricature more than representation. As in previous titles in the series, Einstein has a large, round head; his is adorned with the scientist’s signature mop of white hair and full mustache from birth. It is an oxymoron to include his life in a series about “ordinary people.”

Another pointless entry in a series intended to inspire more than inform. (Picture book. 3-6)

In this poignant import, a lonely badger who hasn’t slept in 30 years discovers Night hiding under her sofa and pops it into a cake tin.

Though Elsa initially expresses indifference that the constant daylight has everyone in town stumbling wearily about, she soon releases her captive. Giving it a cup of blackberry juice, she confides that she lost the ability to sleep through years of lighthouse |

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F IS FOR FEELINGS

Millar, Goldie; Berger, Lisa A. Illus. by Mitchell, Hazel Free Spirit (40 pp.) $15.99 | $9.99 paper | Aug. 20, 2014 978-1-57542-475-0 978-1-57542-476-7 paper An alphabet of emotions, created by two clinical psychologists for parent-child discussions.

Intended to provide a starting vocabulary for expressing feelings, the text for each of Mitchell’s cartoon-style, utilitarian scenes consists of a cue (“A is for afraid”) and a tagline (“I am scared”). In the pictures, a diverse cast of children in everyday settings mostly responds with facial expressions rather than actions to common situations, such as being left with a babysitter or having to wait for a turn on the swings, or they display general moods like sadness and grouchiness. Unsurprisingly, considering the authors’ credentials, most of the modeled emotions are related to anger or anxiety. Those of a more positive cast tend to be less easily definable: “D is for determined”; “Q is for quiet.” Furthermore, the abecedarian conceit is overstretched with “K is for kind” and “Y is for yelling” (as in, “I’m full of energy, and I feel like being loud!”), which aren’t feelings so much as behaviors. The “Letter to Caring Adults” at the beginning as well as closing spreads of advice and bulleted activity lists suggest the main audience for this are adults rather than children themselves.

Useful, if not particularly artful. (Informational picture book. 5-8, adult)

YOLO

Myracle, Lauren Amulet/Abrams (240 pp.) $16.95 | Aug. 26, 2014 978-1-4197-0871-8 Series: Internet Girls, 4 Instant-messaging champs Maddie, Angela and Zoe return to hash out their first year away at respective colleges in this fourth installment of Myracle’s popular series that began with ttyl (2004).

Geographically speaking, the trio has some serious distance separating them. Thoughtful, reserved Zoe is enthralled with her classes at Kenyon in Ohio, even as she misses her boyfriend, Doug. At the University of Georgia, fashion-conscious Angela contends with a freaky roommate who seems to be stealing her stuff while she pledges to a sorority, causing her to become increasingly unsure about the Greek system. And confident Maddie, usually the one who takes charge, finds herself the odd girl out with her suitemates at the University of California at Santa Cruz. As in the first three books, the entirety of this novel is written as texts and instant messages among the young women. While there are a few instances in which this format feels a little forced—usually when a character requires more 116

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than two or three lines to sum things up—it remains an incredibly appealing narrative device. The friends’ honesty with one another, even about things like embarrassing sexual experiences and depression, is lifelike (and heartwarming, to boot), and their jargon—“fugly,” “ex-fucking-scuse me?”—will ring true to many a teen reader.

Funny, deceptively smart and just in time for those going off to college. (Fiction. 14-20)

DIGGING A HOLE TO HEAVEN Coal Miner Boys

Nelson, S.D. Illus. by Nelson, S.D. Abrams (64 pp.) $19.95 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-4197-0730-8

Nelson departs from his usual Native American stories in this informative look at child coal miners.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, young boys worked many jobs deep underground in American coal mines. Breaker boys (possibly as young as 5) picked rock from the piles of brokenup coal, trapper boys worked doors deep underground, and spraggers stopped brakeless coal carts by jamming wooden sticks between the spokes of their wheels. In this dangerous environment, 12-year-old Conall labors as a driver of a mule named Angel, who spends her entire life underground. Conall and his older brother work to help support their family: His father’s wages are not enough. The text takes readers, Conall and Angel through a representative day, then interjects some tension with a tunnel collapse that is largely ignored by the elegant mine owner. Though slight, this storyline nonetheless works in tandem with fact boxes and sidebars to illuminate the dark and dangerous world of shaft mining. Nelson’s acrylic-paint illustrations are gritty and realistic; more evocative still are the historical photographs that appear on nearly every page.

A useful and thorough piece of work combining fiction and nonfiction, with an extensive author’s note detailing the history of coal mining. (timeline, notes, bibliography, index) (Fiction/nonfiction hybrid. 8-12)

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“Clear, distinct color photography modulates from sunny, sandy desert scenes to dark, campfire-illuminated ones to highlight the essential elements of the experience. ” from new month, new moon

NEW MONTH, NEW MOON

and Vicky makes a winsome protagonist. In contrast, the story is a bit flat, and Onyefulu’s text has the brevity and stiltedness of a primer. This accessibility should appeal to beginning readers, but as a read-aloud it suffers. Ife’s First Haircut, a companion piece featuring an adorable male toddler, shares this offering’s strengths and weaknesses.

A sweet, brief glimpse into a universal childhood experience in a very specific place. (Picture book. 4-7) (Ife’s First Haircut: 978-1-84780-364-1)

Ofanansky, Allison Photos by Alpern, Eliyahu Kar-Ben (32 pp.) $16.95 | $7.95 paper | $7.95 e-book Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-4677-1945-2 978-1-4677-1946-9 paper 978-1-4677-4670-0 e-book The beginning of a new month, known in the Jewish calendar as Rosh Chodesh, is explained via a family’s camping trip in the Negev Desert.

A young Jewish boy named Ira narrates his family’s purposeful outing to learn about the phases of the moon through a guide’s instruction and demonstrations of the Jewish lunar calendar. Clear, distinct color photography modulates from sunny, sandy desert scenes to dark, campfire-illuminated ones to highlight the essential elements of the experience. Family members hold a globe-patterned inflatable beach ball, a papiermâché moon and a lantern as they move around one another to illustrate each phase of the moon and how each new month begins with the first sliver of the crescent moon. Of course, the clear night sky and a look through a telescope to see the stars, constellations and planets are also quite intriguing. As a final sweet culmination to the lesson, baking round pita bread over an open flame and then creating “pita-moons” with chocolate spread allows Ira a chance to synthesize what he has learned before he enjoys a big bite. The story concludes with a papiermâché-moon craft activity.

A nice blend of planetary science and religious observance. (author’s note) (Picture book/religion. 5-8)

VICKY GOES TO THE DOCTOR

Onyefulu, Ifeoma Photos by Onyefulu, Ifeoma Frances Lincoln (32 pp.) $17.99 | Aug. 1, 2014 978-1-84780-363-4

Better safe than sorry when you don’t feel well.

In a small village in eastern Nigeria, Vicky, who looks about 6, watches listlessly as her friends play all around her and doesn’t take part. Nor does she join in when they start drawing pictures. Vicky also won’t eat her mother’s food, a sure sign that something’s wrong. Her father feels her forehead; it’s hot. Her mother declares she must take Vicky to the doctor. The clinic’s not far away, so they’re able to walk. The doctor, a grandmotherly woman with wire-rimmed eyeglasses, has a gentle manner. She takes Vicky’s temperature and listens to her chest, recommending that the little girl be kept cool and given lots of water. In no time, Vicky feels much better, displaying a healthy appetite and playing and drawing pictures with her friends again. The high-resolution color photographs that illustrate the book provide many interesting details of village life in Nigeria, |

SUPER SNIFFERS Dog Detectives on the Job

Patent, Dorothy Hinshaw Bloomsbury (48 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-0-8027-3618-5

An exploration of the many jobs dogs, with their superior sense of smell, do for humans.

Covering a great deal of territory, the table of contents lists four chapters: “Dogs and Their Amazing Noses,” “Searching and Saving,” “Helping Planet Earth” and “Medical Alert Dogs.”

Patent does a commendable job of delivering the information, but the 48 pages feel rather crowded. Not only does she discuss all the activities dogs and their noses do in the service of humans, but she also gives brief explanations of an invasive species, diabetes, and conservation efforts for gorillas and orcas, among other subtopics. While these latter are important and notable subjects, they are not adjunct enough to the book’s primary topic to keep readers focused and ultimately have the result of cluttering and confusing rather than enhancing the main exploration. The overall effect for readers is a bit like reading a list of facts in a brochure. The book’s design—a lively primary-color one—sets black type on either yellow, blue or red backgrounds alongside plenty of full-color photos with captions. The red background is the least successful, since it is difficult to see the black type against it.

Too many topics result in an ambitious but ultimately rather dry work. (index, resources) (Nonfiction. 8-12)

GHOSTING

Pattou, Edith Amazon Children’s Publishing (392 pp.) $16.99 | $9.99 e-book | Aug. 19, 2014 978-1-4778-4774-9 978-1-4778-9774-4 e-book Eight teens’ fates intertwine and recombine in the aftermath of a prank gone very wrong.

The constellation of characters is best imagined as a nucleus of two—the beautiful, domineering and troubled athletic couple Brendan and Emma—surrounded by an outer ring of friends, then two farther-off characters. The outer ring comprises sad stoner Felix

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“Adult readers will recognize traces of Watership Down, Beatrix Potter and even the work of cartoonist Gary Larson, but who knew until this book that red squirrels speak with cockney accents?” from nuts to you

and camera-toting Maxie, back in Illinois after four years in Colorado, along with golden girl Chloe and her earnest boyfriend, Anil. It is then connected more loosely to Emma’s thoughtful younger sister, Faith, and Walter, whose isolation and tenuous grasp on reality plays a pivotal role. After an unsatisfying, awkward stop at an alcohol-soaked end-of-summer bash, Chloe suggests a visit to the local “ghost house,” a seemingly abandoned property on the edge of the local cemetery. Chloe and Emma creep up on the porch, knocking over rose bushes as they go.

The girls’ act of trespassing combines with Brendan’s drunkenness and bravado to set off a chain reaction that leads to multiple shootings and other serious injuries, which in turn lead to varying degrees of recovery and, ultimately, reflection. A novel in verse with a large cast of rather two-dimensional characters facing the consequences of their actions is nothing new, but Pattou keeps the pacing brisk enough to make this a decent page-turner.

Engaging, if not essential. (Verse/fiction. 13-15)

NUTS TO YOU

Perkins, Lynne Rae Greenwillow/HarperCollins (256 pp.) $16.99 | $8.99 e-book | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-06-009275-7 978-0-06-226220-2 e-book The gray squirrel Jed’s human acquaintance relates this entertaining story of friendship and adventure, beginning with Jed’s narrow escape from a hawk and then continuing with a series of tail-raising escapades.

An introductory author’s note and endnote frame the story as a tale told by the squirrel to the writer. After the hawk snatches Jed, most of his squirrel community gathers for a memorial service. However, his friends TsTs and Chai, sure Jed is alive, bravely follow a trail of “buzzpaths” and “frozen spiderwebs”—utility lines and towers—to find him. The narrator frequently weaves tidbits of natural science, ecology and philosophy, as well as notes about human behavior, into each short, action-packed chapter. Humorous footnotes and direct addresses add to the fun, as in: “To squirrels, ‘Are you nuts?’ is a combination of ‘Have you lost your mind?’ and ‘You remind me of the most wonderful thing I can think of.’ ” Adult readers will recognize traces of Watership Down, Beatrix Potter and even the work of cartoonist Gary Larson, but who knew until this book that red squirrels speak with cockney accents? (Or, more realistically, that squirrel homes are called “dreys”?) Strong characterizations carry readers through the episodic adventure.

With its unswerving inclusion of predators, habitat destruction and territorial conflict, this novel could have grown dark; instead, it is funny and exuberant. (Fantasy. 7-11)

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THE SCAVENGERS

Perry, Michael Harper/HarperCollins (336 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-0-06-202616-3 Teen Ford Falcon (nee Maggie) headlines a fast-paced, post-apocalyptic Laura Ingalls Wilder wilderness story, complete with morning chores and Ma’s dreams of a cabin with windows.

At “that age where I’m not sure who I am,” Maggie is haunted by memories of a previous life. Now, after the ravages of wild weather fluctuations and the “Patriotic Partnering” of agro-giant CornVivia with the government, many have chosen to live safely sequestered in cities UnderBubble—but Maggie and her family fled to the wilds of OutBubble. Outside the protective domes, Maggie and her family stay “busy scavenging, scrounging, and surviving”; neighbor Toad (speaking in pig Latin and Spoonerisms) helps out. Zombie-like GreyDevils (juiced up on the homemade hootch known as PartsWash) lurk in the woods, desperate for stray grains of CornVivia’s potent, genetically modified URCorn—and there’s evil in that there corn….Perry creates an engaging contrast between this hardscrabble world and Ma’s desperation to maintain standards of civilization; Emily Dickinson and Earl Grey tea enjoy central roles in the tense mother-daughter relationship. With plenty of contemporary issues wrapped around a good story, this new take on familiar post-apocalyptic imagery with a science-gone-awry theme should make fertile ground for book-club discussions and teen-survivalist daydreams. Sufficient unanswered questions exist to fuel a sequel, but there’s no cliffhanger—Perry provides a satisfying closing for his restless heroine.

Comparisons to other gritty, engaging tough-girl-witha-strong-moral-compass stories are inevitable, but Maggie has originality and grit to spare. (Post-apocalyptic adventure.

8-12)

THE BOOK OF BAD THINGS

Poblocki, Dan Scholastic (256 pp.) $16.99 | $16.99 e-book | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-545-64553-9 978-0-545-64555-3 e-book Will 12-year-old Cassidy’s summer escape from New York City literally be killer?

For the past two years, Cassidy Bean has been in a program that places city kids with suburban families for the summer. When the Tremonts seem hesitant to have her back, Cassidy thinks it’s because of something that happened the previous year. Still, they do invite her again, but when she arrives in Whitechapel, New Jersey, she finds the Tremont’s son Joey, also 12, is no longer fun

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or friendly. Cassidy also learns that the neighborhood’s creepy curmudgeon and hoarder, Mrs. Chambers, has died. After the Chambers house is cleared out and the townsfolk pick over her treasures, ghost sightings abound—and more people die.

Cassidy and her new friend, Ping, persuade Joey to help them find out what’s behind the ghosts and the disappearing bodies.

What they discover is worse than anything in Cassidy’s therapy journal, her Book of Bad Things. Poblocki’s return, full of mystery, monsters and ghosts, is sure to satisfy his fans. A solid main character, Cassidy is surrounded by a good supporting cast, and her past troubles figure nicely in the tale and its resolution.

Ghostly bits and creepy action are more interesting than the cause of the “haunting,” but the book will nevertheless supply chills, especially if read at night.

Old-school, John Saul–style horror for preteens. (Horror. 9-12)

THESEUS AND THE MINOTAUR

Pommaux, Yvan Illus. by Pommaux, Yvan TOON/Candlewick (56 pp.) $16.95 | Aug. 26, 2014 978-1-935179-61-0

The tale of Theseus, recast into graphic-novel form.

Sound effects and wry dialogue (“Woe is us!” moan the young Athenian victims on their way to Crete) occasionally lighten the drama, but the art, which places small figures in rugged landscapes or period structures built to monumental scale, echoes the interspersed narrative’s formal, remote tone. Though the Minotaur displays likewise monumental thews, Theseus looks almost puny by modern hero standards—so much so that his battles with the bull-headed monster and earlier outsized foes (each of which is confined to a single anticlimactic panel) seem less struggles than stylized rituals. Furthermore, the telling is hung about with pedagogical implements: pronunciation guides (in a tiny font), “character cards” for the major players, a wordy annotated index, maps and, on the rear cover, even suggested discussion questions. Robert Byrd’s The Hero and the Minotaur (2005) lacks most such extras but tells more of the story, with considerably more vim. Pommaux’s suggestion that Theseus neglected to change his ship’s black sails because he was “distraught” over leaving Ariadne behind is a nice touch, but it’s not enough to rescue this wooden rendition.

A distant, uninvolving take on an archetypal hero tale. (bibliography) (Graphic mythology. 10-13)

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MADE BY RAFFI

Pomranz, Craig Illus. by Chamberlain, Margaret Frances Lincoln (40 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-84780-433-4 A boy with a flair for fashion finds affirmation.

Raffi wonders why he is different from all the other boys in school; he would rather sit quietly than play rough games. When his teacher shows him how to knit, he is excited and soon starts a scarf for his father with skeins of yarn in rainbow colors. The project grows and grows and grows as Raffi ignores the laughter from the children on their school bus. He asks his very supportive parents if maybe he is “strange or weird” or “girly” or a “Tomgirl.” No, they answer; he is wonderful. The next project is a cape for a classmate playing a prince in a school play. Step by step (illustrated on a double-page spread), Raffi designs and sews it together.

After some initial teasing, the other kids are enthusiastic and ask him to create clothes for them. Acceptance and support envelop the future fashion designer. Chamberlain’s pencil, ink and digital art is colorful, comic and lively. Raffi is surely fortunate to be in such a positive setting, and hopefully he can be a model for all Tomgirls. “Mum” and “metre” are the only two Briticisms in this import.

A solid support for all children who don’t fit an accepted mode of behavior. (Picture book. 4-7)

ANATOMY OF A MISFIT

Portes, Andrea HarperTeen (336 pp.) $17.99 | $10.99 e-book | Sep. 2, 2014 978-0-06-231364-5 978-0-06-231366-9 e-book Anika Dragomir, the third most popular girl at her high school in 1980s Nebraska, is pursued by two different boys, both off-limits to her, in a romance filled with seriously funny dark humor

and tragedy.

When, toward the end of this unconventional novel, Anika realizes that she may have inherited her tendency toward mental imbalance from her loving and smart but eccentric mother, it’s an epiphany for her. It might not be similarly revelatory for readers, given the first-person window they’ve been given into her thoughts throughout. Nevertheless, Anika will already have won most of them over, even in the face of some questionable moral lapses, such as dosing her (albeit obnoxious and, it turns out, racist) boss’s coffee with Valium and pilfering money from the register. She worries that, inside, she’s “spider soup,” but it’s clear that Anika’s a good soul, though she’s terrified of her supposed friend, the most popular girl in school. This fear is the reason that she stays quiet about her developing relationships

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with both reformed outcast Logan, who deals with a paralyzing, sad home life, and the wildly charismatic but possible player Jared. Chapters interspersed that describe Anika pedaling furiously on her bike toward a clearly horrific outcome will brace readers from the start, but this foreshadowing does little to soften the emotional punch of the conclusion.

A compelling debut for teens from adult novelist Portes (Hick, 2007, etc.). (Historical fiction. 14-18)

MY YEAR OF EPIC ROCK

Pyros, Andrea Sourcebooks Jabberwocky (224 pp.) $7.99 paper | Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-4022-9300-9 The start of seventh grade is supposed to be filled with excitement for Nina and her best friend, Brianna, but Nina suddenly finds herself adrift when Brianna ditches her for a new, more sophisticated and ultracool best friend.

Feeling abandoned isn’t the only challenge that Nina faces.

She also has several dangerous food allergies and must be extremely careful about what she eats. Now that Brianna has moved on, Nina begins eating lunch at the “peanut-free table” with the other kids who have food allergies. As she forms new friendships, Nina is able to recognize some of Brianna’s crueler traits. She comes to realize that she was living in the shadow of her former friend and begins to feel more comfortable being herself. Her new group decides to form a band, the EpiPens, to perform at the upcoming school talent show. However, music plays a very minor role in the plot, which is mostly driven by Nina’s struggles with food and friendship. The narrative is quite tame in its language, humor and romance (particularly given the ages represented), making it a good choice for younger readers.

Slightly bland, though valuable for its portrayal of a young person living with serious food allergies. (Fiction.

9-12)

GO TO SLEEP, LITTLE FARM

Ray, Mary Lyn Illus. by Neal, Christopher Silas HMH Books (40 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-0-544-15014-0

Ray and Neal tackle the tried-andtrue theme of bedtime on the farm.

Ray’s work does have some lovely turns of phrase; “Somewhere a pocket sleeps in a skirt” and a reference to “minutes that sleep inside clocks” are standouts. But as a girl is tucked into bed while the farm and natural world settle down around her, almost-rhymes and spotty rhythms undermine the text’s alternately lilting and halting efforts toward lullaby. Take the line “Somewhere a fox calls her pups to their den—as somewhere 120

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shadows tuck a house in.” It almost works, but not quite. Meanwhile, Neal’s mixed-media illustrations have a somewhat retro style and are appropriately dark and soothing, with soft visual textures and forms on each spread. Illustrations also strive to extend the text by resisting redundancy; for example, the line “Somewhere a bear” is accompanied by an illustration of a bear in the wild, but the page turn “finds a bed in a log” paired not with that same bear but a teddy bear and the girl burrowed under blankets. Perhaps a consistent continuation of this conceit, marrying nature scenes with parallel scenes in the girl’s home (à la the Dillons’ interpretation of Margaret Wise Brown’s Two Little Trains, 2001) would have succeeded.

It’s difficult indeed for a bedtime book to stand out, and this one doesn’t quite deliver. (Picture book. 2-4)

DELIVERANCE

Redwine, C.J. Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins (480 pp.) $17.99 | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-06-211723-6 Series: Defiance, 3 The post-apocalyptic romance that began with Defiance (2012) reaches its conclusion as Rachel and Logan separately work to bring down the men who have robbed them of their families and community.

In the sanctuary of Lankenshire, Logan plots to trick the Commander into helping him raise an army to lay siege to Rowansmark and save Rachel. Meanwhile, the captive Rachel plots against Logan’s long-lost brother as he takes her across the Wasteland to Rowansmark. At the center of their travails is the “tech” that controls the subterranean, dragonlike creatures that destroyed America just a few decades before. If Logan can adapt his device, he can use it to bring the Commander down; if Rachel can disable Rowansmark’s, she can render the city vulnerable to Logan and his forces. All of this is punctuated by much violence (multiple dismemberments, a protracted flogging and more exploding bodies than any book ought to contain, among other examples) and extravagant navel-gazing by the protagonists. As Rachel and Logan tell the tale in alternating, nearly identical, present-tense narrations, each returns over and over to their respective journeys through grief to festering revenge. Plotting is heavily contrived; prose is plodding. One bright spot is a new secondary character, the bookish Connor, who accompanies Logan; unfortunately, his sexual naïveté triggers an embarrassingly retrograde exchange about what girls want.

Tedious. (Post-apocalyptic romance. 14-18)

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“...the pace is fast and the writing clean, entertaining and candid.” from always a catch

THE VERY NOISY HOUSE

Rhodes, Julie Illus. by Paul, Korky Frances Lincoln (32 pp.) $17.99 | Aug. 15, 2014 978-1-84507-983-3

A simple, rhythmic text describes accelerating and decelerating noises at different levels of a house.

The house itself is exciting, its pagodalike shape further accentuated by double-page spreads that read vertically instead of horizontally. The first spread introduces “an old lady” on the bottom floor, who looks less old than demented, with her flapping lips, crooked glasses, wild hair and toothy grin. Her “BIG wooden stick” goes “CLOMP! CLOMP! CLOMP!” in the bold text at the page’s bottom and in large lettering over her story’s rooftop. On the floors above hers, sets of eyes peer out of dark windows. With each successive page turn, the next floor up features another grotesquely drawn occupant who reacts to the noise underneath with a new noise: A dog woofs, a cat meows, a baby wails, birds squawk. Each page also reveals a different, cluttered room in the old lady’s house and, inexplicably, a large line of spiders roaming about the lawn. The climax is appropriately noisy, and readers who make it to the end will enjoy the sly twist that arrives after all the noises have gradually died down.

Four children created the lively, magical artwork used for the endpapers; this book would charm if their art had been used throughout. (Picture book. 2-4)

ALWAYS A CATCH

Richmond, Peter Philomel (288 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 4, 2014 978-0-399-25055-2

First-generation rich boy Jack is shipped off to prestigious Oakhurst Hall, where he makes varsity football as a walk-on, molds potheads into a recording-worthy band, wows teachers with his insightful writing and meets the intriguing Caroline—but Jack’s a teen, so there’s plenty of angst and self-analysis, too.

Even with mom long-gone to do “good work” in Guatemala (apparently unconcerned about “the work she hasn’t finished” in raising her son), a father obsessed with work, a kind but inexperienced stepmother, and little home support for his loves of music and running, Jack knows he has more going for him than most. But he’s still a teen away from home facing life-altering decisions: bulk up through weightlifting alone, or try steroids?

Go with Dad’s “try harder than the people on each side of you” competitive advice or his coach’s “[you’re] playing for the men on each side of you” message? Buck school tradition, or go along to get along? The compressed time frame (football season) and |

deep bench of characters necessitate skimming over profound development, but the pace is fast and the writing clean, entertaining and candid. An appealing mix of teen confusion and potential, Jack’s greatest threat is his ’roid-raging teammates’ late hits, but a happy outcome is never really in doubt.

Football forms the backbone, but music courses through the veins of a dynamic but thoughtful novel of selfdiscovery. (Fiction. 12-16)

PERCY JACKSON’S GREEK GODS

Riordan, Rick Illus. by Rocco, John Disney-Hyperion (336 pp.) $24.99 | Aug. 19, 2014 978-1-4231-8364-8 Percy Jackson takes a break from adventuring to serve up the Greek gods like flapjacks at a church breakfast.

Percy is on form as he debriefs readers concerning Chaos, Gaea, Ouranos and Pontus, Dionysus, Ariadne and Persephone, all in his dude’s patter: “He’d forgotten how beautiful Gaea could be when she wasn’t all yelling up in his face.” Here they are, all 12 Olympians, plus many various offspring and associates: the gold standard of dysfunctional families, whom Percy plays like a lute, sometimes lyrically, sometimes with a more sardonic air. Percy’s gift, which is no great secret, is to breathe new life into the gods.

Closest attention is paid to the Olympians, but Riordan has a sure touch when it comes to fitting much into a small space—as does Rocco’s artwork, which smokes and writhes on the page as if hit by lightning—so readers will also meet Makaria, “goddess of blessed peaceful deaths,” and the Theban Teiresias, who accidentally sees Athena bathing. She blinds him but also gives him the ability to understand the language of birds. The atmosphere crackles and then dissolves, again and again: “He could even send the Furies after living people if they committed a truly horrific crime—like killing a family member, desecrating a temple, or singing Journey songs on karaoke night.”

The inevitable go-to for Percy’s legions of fans who want the stories behind his stories. (Mythology. 10-14)

FLEABRAIN LOVES FRANNY

Rocklin, Joanne Amulet/Abrams (288 pp.) $16.95 | Aug. 12, 2014 978-1-4197-1068-1

An exceptional flea helps a poliostricken girl in this tale of friendship and acceptance.

Ten-year-old Franny Katzenback, stuck in a wheelchair in her bedroom in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, waits for a miracle cure. She endures painful therapy and isolation as fear of contagion keeps friends away.

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“Buffoonish bad guys with foolish plans for power nicely balance the hints of real danger in this light, fast read.” from nanny x

An avid reader, Franny falls in love with the newly published Charlotte’s Web. When a flea writes her a note, Franny, lonely and so aware of the power of even the tiniest viruses, writes back. Fleabrain has extraordinary powers. He mounts Franny on a flying horse, and together, they do nocturnal good deeds throughout the city and fly to see the Seven Wonders of the World. Fleabrain, scholarly and erudite, is pompous, too often spouting quotes followed by the name of the quoted, including birth and death dates. He’s not a particularly likable flea (no Charlotte he); his pontificating interrupts the story and seems far too sophisticated for the intended audience, as do some of the fantasy adventures, as when Fleabrain is summoned to judgment by hordes of nuclei. On the other hand, Rocklin perfectly captures the era of 1952 and creates a sympathetic, realistic character in Franny, who begins to accept her condition, rejoin her friends and even protest her school’s inaccessibility.

As a historical novel, this more than succeeds; as a fantasy, it misses the mark. (Fantasy. 10-14)

PLAYING WITH MATCHES

Rosen, Suri ECW Press (256 pp.) $10.95 paper | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-77041-182-1

An unforgiveable email prank involving an elderly teacher forces 16-year-old Raina Resnick’s expulsion from her New York Jewish high school and banishment to Toronto to live with her strict aunt.

Poor school behavior and a knack for thoughtless action have fostered Raina’s negative reputation.

She is somewhat unjustly blamed for her sister Leah’s broken engagement, and when she tries to make amends with a series of well-intended efforts, all seems to go awry. Somehow, this arrogant teen does have one positive, unusual talent for her age—matching hopelessly older singles clueless about dating protocol. In an attempt to drum up new prospective-husband material for Leah and repair their relationship, Raina creates an anonymous matchmaking website, Matchmaven. She secretly nurtures relationships and doles out advice for her tight-knit community, “where there’s only 1.1 degrees of separation,” which includes a financial consultant, an elderly widower and even her dragon lady of a school principal. This dual life, as the double-entendre title implies, ignites late-night escapades, failing grades and much scrutiny from school officials and family.

Jewish readers attuned to the matrimonial expectations for observant youth will relate to Rosen’s cleverly metaphoric middle-class descriptions while chuckling at the often improbable, fast-paced shenanigans of her protagonist.

Fizzy, funny and ultimately redemptive. (Fiction. 13-16)

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NANNY X

Rosenberg, Madelyn Holiday House (112 pp.) $16.95 | Sep. 15, 2014 978-0-8234-3166-3 Lots of nannies are special; this one is a special agent.

When Jake and Alison’s mom returns to work as a lawyer, they, their toddler sister, Eliza, and their enthusiastic dog, Yeti, get a new nanny. Nanny X arrives clad in a motorcycle jacket and straw hat; fifth-grader Alison is not impressed, but Jake is intrigued. Both are a bit grossed out by what’s in their lunch sacks: peanut butter-and-anchovy sandwiches. When she takes the kids to attend a rally to save their neighborhood park from becoming a factory, the mayor is beaned by what appears to be a rock. One of Alison’s friends is accused, and Nanny X swings into action, revealing that she’s a member of the Nanny Action Patrol. Alison’s skepticism deepens, but as the gadgets come out of the diaper bag (baby-bib GPS tracker, sippy-cup listening device) and the investigation continues, she’s slowly won over. Can the kids and Yeti help Nanny X halt a major crime? Alison and Jake alternate narration duties in Rosenberg’s tale of neighborhood espionage in suburban Washington, D.C. Buffoonish bad guys with foolish plans for power nicely balance the hints of real danger in this light, fast read. Both narrative voices are distinct, and the action, while not exactly believable, is realistically presented.

A fun and funny blend of Spy Kids and Mary Poppins. (Fiction. 7-10)

FOUR

Roth, Veronica Harper/HarperCollins (304 pp.) $17.99 | Jul. 8, 2014 978-0-06-234521-9 Series: Divergent Roth returns to her wildly popular Divergent series with four prequel stories from Four’s viewpoint.

Before he was “Four,” he was Tobias Eaton, the abused and alienated son of Marcus, leader of the Abnegation faction. The stories (really one episodic novella) trace his path from the choice to join Dauntless to his first encounters with Tris, heroine of the trilogy and love of his life. Sufficient information is interwoven to make the world accessible to new readers, while fans will find a surreptitious thrill digging into a taciturn hero’s back story; still, little of real consequence is added to the overall plot. Devotees will undoubtedly relish cameo appearances by several beloved (and loathed) characters, and they will squee over such iconic moments as Four’s earning his nickname, getting his tattoos and learning the dangers of being “Divergent.” More compelling is his gradual transformation from an angry, manipulated

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and vulnerable victim to a badass loner—still angry and bitter but now tough and determined. Unfortunately, this narrative arc is undercut by the final story and the three rewritten short scenes from the first book, which read almost like bad fan fiction: Once Tris appears, the love-struck Four becomes dithering and goony, gushing about her all-embracing awesomeness and explaining that all his harsh words and actions really meant their exact opposite.

For fans only; but their number is legion. (Dystopian romance. 12 & up)

SANCTUM

Roux, Madeleine Harper/HarperCollins (352 pp.) $17.99 | $9.99 e-book | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-06-222099-8 978-0-06-222101-8 e-book Series: Asylum, 2 The eerie atmosphere of Asylum (2013) has a hard time making itself felt in this sequel.

After Dan Crawford and his friends were nearly murdered at New Hampshire College, the site of a former mental hospital, they find themselves haunted. Abby and Jordan receive cryptic old carnival photos, and Dan is urged by the boy who almost killed him to return to NHC and “follow” the photographs. Dan, Abby and Jordan pose as prospective freshmen, arriving to find crowds of unrealistic college students and a bizarre mess involving hypnotism, a mysterious stone and a cult called the Scarlets. Plagued by what might be ghosts or hallucinations, Dan uses his vague mental connection with the asylum’s former warden to investigate the Scarlets and discovers that he’s not the only one with ties to the asylum. The plot meanders, and the characters develop very little beyond a romance between Dan and Abby; Dan’s possible relationship with the warden remains unexplored, and his own mental illness is so unspecific that it’s unclear whether he’s possessed or hallucinating. Mock photos of carnival performers are interesting but don’t always match the text, so they feel disruptive. The ending delivers a disturbing moment with creepy implications, but the disorganized buildup still reduces its impact.

Fans of Asylum will want to read this, but they shouldn’t expect a logical continuation of the first book. (Fiction. 14-18)

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CAT IN THE CITY

Salamon, Julie Illus. by Weber, Jill Dial (208 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 4, 2014 978-0-8037-4056-3

Adult author and former New York Times reporter Salamon places a cat at the center of her beloved city in her first effort for young readers.

First seen as a straggly stray, hungry and discouraged, Pretty Boy is the central figure in a rambling storyline that crams in too many characters and coincidences but not enough child appeal. The cast includes two shopkeepers, three dogs and their walker, a family of four that has recently moved to the city and an elderly cello player. The tone is matter-of-fact (though the animals can speak to one another), and the plot unfolds predictably. Pretty Boy finds a home—eventually—and some of the people connect in meaningful ways. The friendly dogs, Maggie, Roxie and Henry, outshine the feline hero with snappy dialogue and distinct personalities, while Sam, aka the Cello Man, is the most sympathetic and interesting of the humans. Full-color, single-page illustrations and vignettes with a pleasantly naïve look appear throughout, reflecting the action. Unfortunately they run the risk of limiting the audience further, as some readers may find them childish.

An odd mixture of animal fantasy, music appreciation, sentimental story and (minor) problem novel, this bland concoction is clearly intended to charm but just as clearly misses the mark. (Fantasy. 8-11)

NIGHTMARES!

Segel, Jason; Miller, Kirsten Random House (384 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-385-74425-6 Charlie Laird’s nightmares become a reality when he discovers a portal to the Netherworld.

Charlie’s widowed father has recently remarried, and Charlie hates it. He hates his stepmom. He hates that his young brother, Jack, is taken in by her. But most of all he hates the new house his family has moved into, as well as the never-ending stream of nightmares he experiences there every night. An evil witch haunts Charlie’s sleep, threatening to eat him and his brother up. When the witch appears in the real world and snatches Jack away, Charlie follows her into the Netherworld and, with the aid of a gorgon and a few slumbering friends, sets out to save not just his brother, but the Land of Nightmares itself. As a first book in a proposed trilogy, there’s a lot of promise here. The authors set up the supernatural rules of this world with ease, not getting bogged down with exceptions or contradictions. The book succeeds at scaring and amusing in equal

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measure, with the Nightmares as varied as they are humorous.

At the heart of the endeavor is a story of personal growth, one that fits nicely with the spooky doings surrounding it. Best of all, this is a contained story. There’s no cliffhanger, no shoddy lingering threats. Upon completion, readers could set it down and never return to the Netherworld, but this world is so enjoyable and interesting, it’s hard to not anticipate future trips.

Sweet, charming and imaginative: a promising launch.

(Fantasy. 8-12)

FRANCES DEAN WHO LOVED TO DANCE AND DANCE

Sif, Birgitta Illus. by Sif, Birgitta Candlewick (32 pp.) $15.99 | Aug. 1, 2014 978-0-7636-7306-2

Similar to Oliver, the protagonist of Sif ’s eponymous debut picture book (2012), the titular character of this story, Frances Dean, feels herself to be different from others and must find a way to express her desire to dance in the light of potential disapproval from other people.

When she is alone, or in the company of only the wind and the birds, her creativity knows no bounds. As soon as there are people around, she feels inhibited and loses her impulse to dance. Her constant companions, the birds, lead her to another, younger girl, who sings beautifully in public without inhibition.

Inspired by this example, Frances gains the courage to dance interactively with others—first with her cat, then with the neighbor’s dog, then with the old lady in the square. The singing girl asks Frances to teach her to dance. Finally she is dancing happily in the park, surrounded by her newfound audience. Sif ’s illustrative style places whimsical, cartoonlike figures in dreamy bucolic backgrounds painted in a muted palette of ochre and olive, peopled with figures and animals in a landscape inspired

by Scandinavian folk tales.

The story of Frances Dean’s artistic journey from shrinking violet to exuberant dancer is sensitively told in a way that will give courage to other children who have felt shy about expressing themselves artistically. (Picture book.

2-5)

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ABOUT PARROTS A Guide for Children Sill, Cathryn Illus. by Sill, John Peachtree (48 pp.) $16.95 | Aug. 1, 2014 978-1-56145-795-3

A vibrant variety of parrots is portrayed in clear, vivid watercolor illustrations with a simple text describing physical characteristics and habits.

Each full-color plate shows one or two parrot species in the appropriate habitat in flight, feeding or nesting. The paintings occupy the right of each two-page opening, with a single sentence on the left side pitched for very young readers and listeners. More information appears in the brief but rich backmatter paragraphs, with one paragraph per plate. The text could have been further enriched with maps and size charts: “Some parrots are big. Others are small.” The contrasting sizes of the hyacinth macaws and buff-faced pygmy parrots that appear in the accompanying picture are mentioned in the backmatter—but a young audience might want to know the relative sizes of others. Too, a visual guide to the locations of parrot species might help readers who are wondering how close a parrot habitat might be found.

Readers encountering this book on its own will learn that parrots are birds but will need to know that birds have feathers and lay eggs—neither is specifically addressed. While vocalizations are mentioned, readers wanting to know which ones can “talk” with humans will be disappointed.

Overall, though, this is a uniquely attractive work with which to round out the bird section, and it is overall an appealing and comprehensive introduction. (Informational picture book. 3-8)

AS RED AS BLOOD

Simukka, Salla Skyscape (236 pp.) $9.99 paper | $9.99 e-book Aug. 28, 2014 978-1477847718 978-1-4778-9771-3 e-book Series: Snow White Trilogy, 1 This trilogy opener from a talented young author has a bracing energy that stands up to the most muscular of Scandinavian thrillers and a heroine more than equal to her competition.

Named for Snow White, Lumikki, 17, lives alone in Tampere, Finland, attending a magnet arts school far from her parents and hometown. If her grim childhood still prompts nightmares, it’s also given her important gifts—chief among them, her ability to deflect attention while closely observing those unaware of her. (Lumikki’s sure to draw comparison to Lisbeth Salander, but Peter Høeg’s Smilla is her true sister under the skin.) In her school’s darkroom, she stumbles into (literally) an appalling secret: thousands of dripping euros hung to dry. Despite

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“Through carefully controlled application of color washes and linear patterns, Srinivasan conveys the magic of a fantasy world that will delight very young children and their caregivers.” from little owl’s day

an evident attempt to cleanse them, they still smell of blood.

Within hours, Lumikki’s pulled into a claustrophobic conspiracy with three popular, high-profile students. Meanwhile, a young Russian woman not much older than Lumikki lies dead nearby, at the heart of the mystery into which Lumikki and her classmates are drawn. The starkly powerful opening paragraph of the Grimms’ “Snow White” provides the narrative frame, and it’s no flimsy high concept—rather, Simukka’s onto something: Fairy tales, like mysteries, present uncompromising moral imperatives—no soft, comforting shades of gray for even the youngest readers.

Limned in stark red, white and black, this cold, delicate snowflake of a tale sparkles with icy magic. (Thriller. 13 & up)

LITTLE OWL’S DAY

Srinivasan, Divya Illus. by Srinivasan, Divya Viking (32 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 16, 2014 978-0-670-01650-1 In this sequel to Srinivasan’s debut picture book, Little Owl’s Night (2011), the little owl explores the unfamiliar territory of the daytime world.

His big black eyes almost pop out of his head as he sees the sun for the first time and all the wonderful things it illuminates: birds, flowers, bees and butterflies—which he at first mistakes for moths, his only prior experience of winged insects. In this sparkling new world, dragonflies skim over the water, snakes slide and glide, turtles sun themselves beside the pond, and wolf pups play in the sunshine. Little Owl’s old friend, Bear, is awake now, ready to show the little bird the beauty of a shimmering rainbow over a waterfall. As the sun sets and the moon rises, the world becomes more familiar to the little owl, although there are still some surprises, such as the discovery that a friendly bunny lives in a burrow right underneath his treetop home. At last he is able to fulfill his dream of showing Bear the moon. The tiny owl flits through richly colored landscapes populated with graceful, stylized renderings of the animals and birds. Through carefully controlled application of color washes and linear patterns, Srinivasan conveys the magic of a fantasy world that will delight very young children and their caregivers.

A welcome return for Little Owl. (Picture book. 2-6)

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MIA’S THUMB

Stille, Ljuba Illus. by Stille, Ljuba Translated by Mundt, Anja Holiday House (32 pp.) $16.95 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-0-8234-3067-3 The whole family tries to help a little girl break a persistent habit in this German import.

When Mia is sad, she sucks her thumb for comfort. When she is excited, she sucks her thumb to calm herself down. And when she must face her neighbor’s large dog, she sucks her thumb to give herself courage. Mia’s family tries everything they can think of to help her stop. Familiar cries of “You are too big for that!” and “Your teeth will get crooked!” fill the house, but Mia doesn’t care. Even the promise of ice cream in exchange for a half-hour break from the thumb fails (but only after seven cones). Grandma decides that she will start sucking her thumb too; if Mia likes it so much, why shouldn’t she? That just might be the push that Mia needs. Stille’s picture-book debut confronts a common problem with a gentle, humorous solution.

The large blocks of patterned borders and cut-paper collages in mossy greens and simple earth tones downplay any drama.

An abrupt ending never quite reveals if Mia has conquered her habit (one wishes for an extra beat or two of denouement), but her thumb is finally seen out of her mouth.

Thumb-sucking solutions can walk a tricky line between cajoling and shaming; happily, this does neither, but it might not be the easiest solution to imitate in real life. (Picture book. 2-5)

MAX THE CHAMPION

Stockdale, Sean; Strick, Alexandra Illus. by Asquith, Ros Frances Lincoln (32 pp.) $17.99 | Aug. 15, 2014 978-1-84780-388-7 A sports-obsessed boy makes his way through his day in winning style.

No matter the endeavor, Max imagines himself in a competition. As he races downstairs to breakfast, in his head he is running a road race. As he zooms through writing lessons in school, he imagines throwing a giant, pencil-shaped javelin. Asquith’s active, spindly lines and licks of watercolor include at least one person (usually a kid) in both Max’s real life and his dream world with some seemingly limiting physical condition. This lets readers appreciate that if you have a guide dog, that shouldn’t stop you from tobogganing, or a wheelchair from taking to the ski slope, or a leg brace from a turn at bat, or an occluder from bike racing. Acceptance is both the issue and the nonissue here; Max sees no barriers to his friends’ participation in his imaginary games—or his own (Max evidently has asthma).

The actual plot is rather flimsy, with Max’s school winning an entire tournament in just one page—but that’s not the point.

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“The images are all intriguing and do much to capture the scope and cultural importance of photography as an art form as well as a documentary medium.” from photos framed

This is not a subtle book, but its heart is absolutely in the right place. (Picture book. 4-8)

KAY KAY’S ALPHABET SAFARI

Sullivan, Dana Illus. by Sullivan, Dana Sleeping Bear Press (40 pp.) $15.99 | Aug. 1, 2014 978-1-58536-905-8

Themed alphabet books are like the Little Engine that Could—they just keep on comin’.

This one is based on the author/illustrator’s personal experience in Kenya. A young man named Kay Kay promises the children at a new school in his village that he will paint the plain white walls with animals from A to Z. As he walks along looking for inspiration, he meets groups of animals too busy at playing “jackstones” or reading riddles to help. They are obvious (to readers) choices, though Kay Kay doesn’t realize it. As he continues his jaunt, each threesome of animals joins in the trek behind him, ending in a complete animal alphabet. The animals he encounters are highlighted in green: “ ‘Kay Kay, come dance with us!’ shouted Baboon, Crocodile, and Dragonfly.” Most of these animals are relatively familiar, with the possible exceptions of Nyala, Quagga, Upupa Bird, Vervet and Xerus Squirrel. The loosely energetic, cartoon illustrations are lively with capricious details. The backmatter includes a glossary of typical Swahili words such as “please” and “bathroom,” as well as such comic phrases as “My brother picks his nose” and “No more broccoli, thank you.” There is also an author’s note, photos of the real Kay Kay and the Star of Hope School, and a map, but unfortunately there is no key to the animal names.

Kids will enjoy the silliness, and there’s lots of potential for the classroom. (Picture book. 6-8)

THE PERILOUS SEA

Thomas, Sherry Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins (432 pp.) $17.99 | $9.99 e-book | Sep. 16, 2014 978-0-06-220732-6 978-0-06-220734-0 e-book Series: Elemental, 2 The second entry in a grand epic fantasy tackles the dilemma of “[h]ow to stop being the Chosen One.” A girl and boy awake in the middle of the Sahara Desert, injured and bereft of memory but wielding awe-inspiring magic; they reluctantly join forces to elude capture by the Atlantean tyrant. Weeks earlier, in a parallel narrative, Prince Titus and Iolanthe Seabourne, aka Archer Fairfax, return to Eton College in a “nonmage” Victorian England, preparing to hone Iolanthe’s elemental powers to destroy the Bane. Their partnership falls apart when a dramatic revelation completely overturns the meaning of the prophecy that guides their plans. This 126

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sophomore outing offers more unexpected twists, spectacular magic, witty banter, hairsbreadth escapes, star-crossed romance, angst-ridden choices—more of everything except significant plot advancement. While the previous volume established the complicated geopolitics and various magical systems, Thomas’ ravishing prose now delves deeper into the tortured, bittersweet relationship between Iolanthe and Titus and (to a lesser degree) their school chums. For all their gifts and responsibilities, they are still just 17, prone to all the moodiness, melodrama and occasional magnificence that adolescence entails. Themes of identity and memory, destiny and choice tie together the two stories, told in alternating chapters with ubiquitous cliffhangers. When the storylines finally intersect, the resolution is so abrupt as to be almost anticlimactic; but the dramatic, defiant conclusion will stoke anticipation for the next volume.

With all the strengths and failings alike of the first book, only ever-so-much more so, this aims directly at its fans and will not likely pick up new ones. (Fantasy. 12 & up)

PHOTOS FRAMED A Fresh Look at the World’s Most Memorable Photographs Thomson, Ruth Candlewick (64 pp.) $18.99 | Aug. 1, 2014 978-0-7636-7154-9

Modern history has been defined by photographs; the most famous images are familiar to many, and each is surely worth more than a thousand words.

Thomson has drawn together a collection of 27 photographic images that span the years from 1844—a self-portrait of photography inventor Louis Daguerre—to three images from 2011, including the formal portrait of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding party. A few other evocative photographs include Migrant Mother, by Dorothea Lange; Afghan Girl, of a solemn, green-eyed Afghani teen in a red head scarf; Marilyn Diptych, Andy Warhol’s often reproduced multiple image of Marilyn Monroe; and Lunchtime atop a Skyscraper, the famous photo by Charles C. Ebbets of Depression-era construction workers fearlessly eating their lunches on a metal beam high above New York City.

Missing from the collection is the tragically iconic photo called Napalm Girl; in its place is the less well-known but nonetheless moving Life Magazine image of a 3-year-old victim of the 1940 London Blitz. Each photo is accompanied by a page of text that provides the history of the image, its significance, a brief biography of the photographer and a few “Photo Thoughts”—questions to consider. The images are all intriguing and do much to capture the scope and cultural importance of photography as an art form as well as a documentary medium.

A fine resource and excellent for even a casual perusal.

(Nonfiction. 10-18)

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THE HEAVEN OF ANIMALS

Tillman, Nancy Illus. by Tillman, Nancy Feiwel & Friends (32 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-0-312-55369-2

Fans of Tillman’s sentimental rhyming couplets, pretty pictures and relentlessly positive worldview will welcome this vision of a happy heaven populated by pampered pets, ethereal angels and friendly animals of all sorts.

This heaven is a decidedly pastoral place, from the fogshrouded lake on one of the opening double-page spreads to a field of sunflowers and a grassy meadow. A sandy beach, deep blue lake and wildly colored savannah are among the other settings, all of which serve to add variety and visual interest. Angels, mostly children and overwhelmingly white, are sprinkled about, playing with dogs, petting kittens and patting horses as well as running, dancing and paddling a bright blue canoe. The digitally created artwork verges on photorealism in some instances, while other vignettes have a gauzy look. The text is straightforward, with a strong rhythm from the opening couplet to the final reassurance: “But when you meet your friends again, / they’ll see you as they saw you then. / And you’ll find they always knew / how much they were loved… / and how much they loved you.”

Accompanied by the depiction of a joyous reunion between a boy and his dog, the final two pages may well be the most affecting part of the whole.

For Tillman, predictability and preciosity have been profitable, and this is likely to be another best-seller to add to her list. (Picture book. 4-7)

THE GRAHAM CRACKER PLOT

Tougas, Shelley Roaring Brook (288 pp.) $15.99 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-1-59643-988-7

Daisy’s life is messy, out of control, and filled with madly improbable characters and crazy escapades.

It is immediately obvious that she has already been involved in something serious, even disastrous. She has been directed to write an account of her actions in a series of letters to Judge Henry, in which she explains the bizarre events, makes excuses and blames others for the outcome. The people involved in her life are all sublimely dysfunctional. Her mom is an alcoholic whose current boyfriend may actually be the one who provides the stability they so desperately need. Daisy’s paternal grandmother is somewhat grounded but is overwhelmed by the schism in the family. Daisy’s friend Graham is a wildly eccentric outsider with an ineffectual mother. And her brain-injured adult cousin, Ashley, is unpredictable and reliant on social services. The catalyst for the story is Daisy’s father, the Chemist—later the ex-chemist. The title plot involves a |

totally naïve and unworkable plan to get him out of prison. As the letters unfold, Tougas leads Daisy on a journey of self-awareness that gradually allows her to come to a more compassionate view of the people in her life. Her final letter to the judge and his reassuring reply offer hope for the future.

Readers will find themselves rooting for Daisy and Graham and for it all to turn out all right. (Fiction. 9-12)

MR. BALL An Egg-cellent Adventure Townsend, Michael Illus. by Townsend, Michael Blue Apple (88 pp.) $12.99 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-1-60905-458-8 Series: Mr. Ball

Mr. Ball’s egg-cellent adventure just may leave him cracked.

Mr. Ball, a big, yellow smiling ball with short arms and legs, and his friends, a hen, a turtle and Dr. Dog, along with Mr. Ball’s pet cat, Ms. Kitty Cow, head off to the circus. Mr. Ball is hoping for some wild, scary entertainment; he is unimpressed until the lion tamer steps into the ring. Everyone’s sad when the circus ends, so they decide to hold their own. Each picks an act to perform. Mr. Ball decides he’ll trap and tame a firebreathing “tweety blob” bird, despite his friends’ warnings.

When he is trapped in the tweety blob’s nest by a mama bird who thinks he’s one of her babies, Mr. Ball needs his friends to rescue him. Good thing Ms. Kitty Cow is there to “Moo-ow!” for help. Townsend’s first Mr. Ball adventure stretches over four chapters, plus prologue and afterword. It’s told in graphic panels with easy-to-read narrative captions. Visual gags in the panels and simple, declarative sentences will encourage repeat readings. The chewed-up worms at feeding time in the nest and the many pie fights won’t hurt re-readability either.

Expect more from this Pac Man–esque hero and his band of friends. (Graphic fantasy. 5-8)

HANA HASHIMOTO, SIXTH VIOLIN

Uegaki, Chieri Illus. by Leng, Qin Kids Can (32 pp.) $16.95 | Aug. 1, 2014 978-1-894786-33-1

When Hana Hashimoto signs up for the school talent show after only three violin lessons, her brothers laugh, but with diligent practice, she learns to make some surprising sounds.

Long ago, Hana’s grandfather Ojiichan was a professional violinist in Japan. When she and her brothers visited him the previous summer, he would play for them. She loved to hear what he could do with his instrument. Not only did he play

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classical pieces, he could play songs, imitate natural sounds and compose melodies for dancing fireflies. Hana hopes to learn to play like that. Uegaki’s narrative and Leng’s pleasing illustrations, spreads and vignettes drawn with pencil and digitally colored, seamlessly incorporate details of both Japanese and North American life. Hana practices every day. She plays for her unappreciative brothers, attentive parents, curious dog or a row of empty chairs (one holding a picture of her grandfather).

When it’s time to perform, she worries and waits with “a walloping heart.” Two moving spreads show the small child on a vast stage, emphasizing her sudden anxiety and the relief of finding friendly faces in the audience.

This sweet multicultural story will resonate with anyone who has experienced stage fright, but Hana’s achievement will be particularly satisfying to young string players who have made some unusual music themselves. (Picture book. 5-8)

SAMMY KEYES AND THE KISS GOODBYE

Van Draanen, Wendelin Knopf (240 pp.) $16.99 | $9.99 e-book | $19.99 PLB Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-375-87055-2 978-0-307-97410-5 e-book 978-0-375-97055-9 PLB Series: Sammy Keyes Mysteries, 18 Sammy Keyes has helped to put countless bad guys away during her short sleuthing career. Now, one of those bad guys wants revenge in this 18th and final story.

When 14-year-old Sammy sneaks into the Senior Highrise in an attempt to catch the long-elusive Nightie-Napper, someone pushes her from the third-floor fire escape. Fortunately, she lands in the bushes; unfortunately, she’s unconscious and unable to tell what happened. The author inserts herself as narrator in Sammy’s stead, directly addressing readers through a mobile point of view that flows easily from character to character, with bits of back story woven seamlessly throughout.

Snappy dialogue, fast-paced narration and glimpses inside the minds of major secondary characters like best friend Marissa McKenze, former nemesis Heather Acosta, and Sammy’s melodramatic and self-absorbed mother keep readers glued to the action as friends, family and a mob of high-top–wearing teens band together to solve the biggest mystery of all: Who tried to kill Sammy Keyes? It’s bad enough that this is Sammy’s last outing; Van Draanen’s departure from her proven, winning formula backfires. Without Sammy’s endearingly wisecracking personality leading the way, the series’ end falls flat.

Fans may be better served by stopping with the penultimate installment, Sammy Keyes and the Killer Cruise (2013).

(Mystery. 10-14)

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LOULA AND THE SISTER RECIPE

Villeneuve, Anne Illus. by Villeneuve, Anne Kids Can (32 pp.) $16.95 | Aug. 1, 2014 978-1-77138-113-0 Annoyed by her triplet brothers, Loula begs her parents for a little sister and learns that making a baby is like making a cake—you need just the right ingredients.

A coy list follows: One needs a full moon, chocolate, butterflies, a candlelit supper, kisses and hugs. Such saccharine winking occurs above the heads of little listeners, who might squint befuddled for just a moment, but, quick as lightning, Loula dashes off with her gallant and ever accommodating chauffeur, Gilbert, to gather up the necessary items. Loose watercolorand–pen-and-ink illustrations sit softly within clouds of white space, their washes of color and lines assured while uninhibited, befitting this delightful story in which a child’s flights of fancy and fantasy drift along happily unchecked. Gilbert, a long, lean string bean of a man, often bows toward little Loula, listening intently and deferentially following her (misguided) instructions. The pair’s moonlit dinner seems a bust, until a hungry hound turns up to both gobble up the meal and serve as the sister Loula’s always wanted—even though he’s a mister.

Children yearning for a reversal of authority, or at least for an adult to go along with their brand of make-believe, will nod approvingly and smile often at Loula’s confounding cookery. (Picture book. 3-6)

AND TWO BOYS BOOED

Viorst, Judith Illus. by Blackall, Sophie Farrar, Straus and Giroux (32 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-0-374-30302-0 A boy waits with increasing trepidation for his turn in the class talent show in this cumulative story.

He’s diligently practiced his song “a billion times” and wears his “lucky blue boots” and pants “with cool pockets.” (Blackall’s appealing illustrations cleverly incorporate flaps: Kids can check out the teeming contents of one of those pockets.) As, in succession, Chloe reads her poem, Henry walks on his hands, Georgia dances on her toes, Leo juggles, and Madeleine shows off her paintings, the young narrator grows ever more discombobulated, seeming to disappear into his yellow-striped sweater.

He begins mixing up words: “On the talent of the morning show, I was ready to song my sing.” Uncertain as his turn arrives, he gets up and sits down repeatedly. Five double-page spreads depict his imagination’s chaotic fantasy, as he mentally mixes up talent-show props and activities and begins “walking my poem” and “dancing my hands.” Blackall clearly separates the realistic and fantasy elements—for the latter, she gives the

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“Willey takes readers along on Charlie’s painful journey...via a meandering timeline of flashbacks, dreams and wrenching conversations, skillfully weaving together the bits and pieces of his life.” from beetle boy

boy blue pants and khaki-colored boots with pockets. When he finally manages to sing his song, “[t]wo boys booed. / But all the other kids were clapping!” The multiethnic classroom is adeptly managed by a sanguine teacher who keeps those two impish boys close by.

Viorst ably returns to the familiar trope of vanquishing childhood fears, nicely abetted by the talented Blackall.

(Picture book. 4-7)

WILL POOLE’S ISLAND

Weed, Tim Namelos (184 pp.) $18.95 | $9.95 paper | Aug. 15, 2014 978-1-60898-173-1 978-1-60898-174-8 paper Will, resident of an English settlement on the edge of the American wilderness in 1643, risks everything when he lets a wise and powerful Native American shaman provide guidance.

Squamiset, a former English captive, has a canny awareness of Will’s odd out-of-body experiences. Their growing friendship—peppered with the man’s seemingly magical feats—provokes retaliation from the colony’s leader, Rockingham, who is driven to imprison Will and a young native friend.

After Squamiset choreographs a breathless rescue, the three head east and then bravely paddle all the way to Nantucket in a dugout canoe. Natives there eventually welcome the group, leading to an idyllic interlude before Rockingham reappears, determined to have vengeance at any cost. The superstitious, incendiary passions of the settlers are effectively and thoughtfully contrasted against the temperate attitude of the Native Americans. Immersive, like the best of historical fiction, Will’s world is so believably depicted that the looming threat from Rockingham infiltrates even the more cheerful aspects of the tale. Suspense is effectively sustained right up to the epilogue that hints—in the form of myth—at Will’s eventual future.

Whether the uncertainty of his ultimate situation is the setup for a sequel is unclear although readers would no doubt welcome a further adventure.

This riveting portrayal of early Colonial New England shines a speculative but compelling light on the time and place. (Historical fiction. 11-15)

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ILLUSIONS OF FATE

White, Kiersten HarperTeen (288 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 9, 2014 978-0-06-213589-6 978-0-06-213591-9 e-book Jessamin Olea has been sent away from her native island of Melei to attend school in the dull and sinister Albion, a country that bears a vague resemblance to Victorian England.

While struggling with her studies and fighting both homesickness and poverty, Jessamin comes literally under the spell of a mercurial aristocrat named Finn Ackerly, who returns her affections and attempts to protect her from the evil, sadistic Lord Downpike. The rebellious and headstrong girl refuses the attempts of the various Alben nobility to protect her, even as the elite struggle to gain control of Albion’s colonies. All hell breaks loose when Jessamin inadvertently takes possession of Lord Downpike’s familiar, a black bird that morphs into a book of spells on occasion but protects Jessamin from the worst of the magic. Downpike’s attempts to recover the bird/book and Jessamin’s frantic pursuit of the captured Finn through a maze of magic portals and strongholds make for a thrilling if confusing narrative. Jessamin’s engaging first-person, present-tense narration does not entirely compensate for the tenuous logic of the plot and the preponderance of stereotyped characters.

Not really enough substance to make a satisfying read even for paranormal addicts. (Paranormal romance. 12-17)

BEETLE BOY

Willey, Margaret Carolrhoda Lab (208 pp.) $17.95 | $12.95 e-book | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-4677-2639-9 978-1-4677-4626-7 e-book Nightly, Kafkaesque dreams of a giant beetle plague 18-year-old Charlie as he recuperates from a ruptured Achilles tendon in the home of his girlfriend, Clara.

Clara, well-meaning but intrusive, sees herself as an angel of mercy who can patch up Charlie’s broken family by inviting his estranged younger brother, Liam, and mother over without telling him. After his mother left him and Liam alone with their abusive father, Charlie spent years seeking the safety he’d thought he found at age 7 when he first recounted his mother’s bedtime stories about a character called Beetle Boy to his father, something he’d come to recognize as “an early big mistake.” His con-man father printed the stories and paraded Charlie around to book fairs in a beetle costume as “the World’s Youngest Published Author.” When Charlie grew too old, his father passed Liam off as Charlie, straining the relationship between the brothers to the breaking point. Charlie has survived with the help of Mrs. M., a curmudgeonly author he met at a fair, who has

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“Woodson cherishes her memories and shares them with a graceful lyricism; her lovingly wrought vignettes of country and city streets will linger long after the page is turned.” from brown girl dreaming

SO, YOU WANT TO WORK IN FASHION? How to Break into the World of Fashion and Design

kept an eye on him over the years. Willey takes readers along on Charlie’s painful journey back to physical and emotional health via a meandering timeline of flashbacks, dreams and wrenching conversations, skillfully weaving together the bits and pieces of his life. Innovative use of type brings an immediacy to Charlie’s struggles as he slowly looks the truth—and his brother— squarely in the face.

Demanding—and riveting. (Fiction. 13-17)

BROWN GIRL DREAMING

Woodson, Jacqueline Nancy Paulsen Books (336 pp.) $16.99 | Aug. 28, 2014 978-0-399-25251-8 A multiaward-winning author recalls her childhood and the joy of becoming a writer.

Writing in free verse, Woodson starts with her 1963 birth in Ohio during the civil rights movement, when America is “a country caught / / between Black and White.” But while evoking names such as Malcolm, Martin, James, Rosa and Ruby, her story is also one of family: her father’s people in Ohio and her mother’s people in South Carolina. Moving south to live with her maternal grandmother, she is in a world of sweet peas and collards, getting her hair straightened and avoiding segregated stores with her grandmother. As the writer inside slowly grows, she listens to family stories and fills her days and evenings as a Jehovah’s Witness, activities that continue after a move to Brooklyn to reunite with her mother. The gift of a composition notebook, the experience of reading John Steptoe’s Stevie and Langston Hughes’ poetry, and seeing letters turn into words and words into thoughts all reinforce her conviction that “[W]ords are my brilliance.” Woodson cherishes her memories and shares them with a graceful lyricism; her lovingly wrought vignettes of country and city streets will linger long after the page is turned.

For every dreaming girl (and boy) with a pencil in hand (or keyboard) and a story to share. (Memoir/poetry. 8-12)

Wooster, Patricia Beyond Words/Aladdin (192 pp.) $19.99 | $9.99 paper | Sep. 16, 2014 978-1-58270-453-1 978-1-58270-452-4 paper Series: Be What You Want, 5

A panoramic view of the fashion industry geared to would-be fashionistas.

In the latest installment of the practical Be What You Want series, which has previously explored careers ranging from comic illustration to being a chef, Wooster unlocks the mysteries of fashion. Tackling one of the most lucrative global industries, Wooster breaks fashion down into five broad areas: design, patternmaking and garment production, merchandising, journalism and photography, and fabric styling. Each field is then showcased from a variety of perspectives, one of which always includes at least one Q-and-A–style profile of a relatively young practitioner in that specialty—some impressively well below legal drinking age. Throughout this fashion primer, the importance of creativity and confidence in one’s vision repeatedly shines through, as evidenced by 16-year-old fashion designer Courtney Allegra, who advises: “If you want to be in fashion, you have to be determined, focused, and confident.

Don’t follow the trends if you don’t want to….Design what you want!” Wooster backs up this inspiring message with activities for readers to hone their own interests and skills. The copious resources provided here include not only a glossary, notes, and detailed bibliography, but tempting lists of fashion-related films and television shows, fashion camps, top fashion schools and online games.

A wonderfully comprehensive, accessible and realistic entree into the dynamic world of fashion. (Nonfiction. 8-14)

DELIVERY OF DOOM

Yaccarino, Dan Feiwel & Friends (352 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 30, 2014 978-1-250-00844-2

There’s a party game writers play from time to time. They’ll try to improvise a story based on the objects in front of them in the room. If Yaccarino was playing that game, he got carried away and threw every item in his house into

this story.

This book is so inventive that every chapter—and sometimes every paragraph—is crammed with ideas. Most of the ideas involve pizza, because the main characters work for Zorgoochi Intergalactic Pizza, which is locked in a battle for supremacy with Quantum Pizza. Readers will learn about the 130

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“teleportation device that delivered pizza using radio waves, the liquid pizza that filled you up and quenched your thirst at the same time, and the pizza seed that could be planted and harvested.” Unfortunately, in his debut as a novelist, the author/ illustrator is less inventive when it comes to plot mechanics.

The characters make remarkably stupid decisions whenever necessary to advance the story. Any readers who shout “Don’t go in the basement!” when they’re watching a horror movie will scream themselves hoarse. The pictures, however, make up for any flaws in the narrative. The black-and-white ink drawings look like technical illustrations from a textbook from the far future. If clip art really were art, it would look like this. The story is not for everyone. The characters include a superintelligent clove of garlic and a walking pizza oven.

Readers with quirky senses of humor can look forward to being surprised—and then surprised again a few paragraphs later. (Science fiction. 8-12)

HOPE FOR WINTER The True Story of a Remarkable Dolphin Friendship

Yates, David; Hatkoff, Craig; Hatkoff, Juliana; Hatkoff, Isabella Scholastic (40 pp.) $17.99 | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-545-75037-0

The story of the dolphin called Winter involved a prosthetic tail and was told in books and a movie. But the tale did not end there.

Five years later, another baby dolphin is found in great distress very near where Winter was discovered. Again, the dedicated professionals at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium rescue the animal and do everything possible to keep her alive. When she recovers, they make the decision to keep her at the aquarium, naming her Hope, and over a period of years, they train her and nurture her. Knowing that dolphins need companionship, they carefully introduce her to Winter and the elderly dolphin Panama. The three dolphins bond easily, forming a loving group.

When Panama dies, Hope and Winter grow even closer, and they are now the stars of the aquarium, attracting crowds of visitors. While the authors are painstaking in their factual account of the events, they also manage to convey a sense of suspense and wonder, as the outcome is never assured. The text is greatly enhanced by color photos depicting many of the exciting events, patient care and joyous playfulness of these good friends. Additional facts about the Clearwater facility and the dolphins aid readers in understanding the extraordinary events.

True, informative, heartfelt and compelling. (Informational picture book. 5-10)

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TWENTY-TWO CENTS The Story of Muhammad Yunus Yoo, Paula Illus. by Akib, Jamel Lee & Low (40 pp.) $18.95 | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-60060-658-8

Microbanks aren’t new, although they are gaining prominence. Here is the story of the first—or at least the formal first—and the one that gained the most notoriety.

Muhammad Yunus grows up in the far-eastern part of India before Partition, in what is now Bangladesh. Although his father makes a decent living, Muhammad is exposed to poverty every day, from beggars at his door to the poor encampments he sees during his Boy Scout excursions. He graduates university, and each day as he walks to work, he passes a woman making stools from bamboo; she is obviously in dire financial straits. He stops to speak with her, to learn her circumstances. Yoo tells the story clearly and unflinchingly, though compassionately, explaining to readers the dreadful trap of the debt cycle. That is lesson No. 1 in this book: The debt cycle is a global plague. Yunus realizes that a simple monetary gift will not help the women out of poverty, but a tiny loan that brings her and other village women into entrepreneurship can. This is lesson No. 2 and what earns Yunus the Noble Peace Prize. Akib’s artwork is drawn in hot shades of pastel that are at once unforgiving and exhilarating.

A heart-gladdening testament to pulling your own suspenders tight, with a little help from your friends. (Picture book/biography. 6-11)

DIGGER AND DAISY GO TO THE DOCTOR

Young, Judy Illus. by Sullivan, Dana Sleeping Bear Press (32 pp.) $9.99 | $4.99 paper | Sep. 1, 2014 978-1-58536-845-7 978-1-58536-846-4 paper Series: Digger and Daisy, 3

In this latest outing for Digger and Daisy, the elder dog sister guides the younger dog brother through a visit to the doctor.

Young’s comradely canine siblings have a history of enjoying adventures together, but going to the doctor is a different order of things for one simple reason: Shots hurt, and doctors always seem to be waving around needles. However, in this early reader, Digger is under the weather—“ ‘I do not feel good.’ Daisy looks at Digger. He does not look good”—so a trip to the doctor is imperative. “I do not want to go,” Digger protests. “I will get a shot.” “You must be brave,” replies Daisy, which is easy to say when you are not on the receiving end. At the office, Digger doesn’t want to let the doctor do anything—take a look in his eyes, ears or mouth—so Daisy goes first. Digger has a cold,

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so he doesn’t need a shot. “But you do,” says the doctor. “Turn around, Daisy.” No good deed goes unpunished, though having someone to share it with is like that spoonful of sugar that helps the medicine go down. Sullivan’s artwork lends a hand, little bits of tropical fruit upon which to sprinkle the sugar.

Giving an inch in the sibling arena can yield a mile of returns, and Digger and Daisy are great role models. (Early reader. 4-6)

TRY THIS! 50 Fun Experiments for the Mad Scientist in You

Young, Karen Romano Photos by Rakola, Matthew National Geographic (160 pp.) $16.99 paper | Aug. 5, 2014 978-1-4263-1711-8

Pretested by a crew of young assistants, these dozens of science demonstrations are both doable and worth doing.

The experiments are grouped into seven categories such as “Bugs and Microbes,” “Weird Physics” and “Things Water Does.”

They range from making slime (“oobleck”) and “biofilm” to designing a cat IQ test and constructing skittering “brushybots” made from motorized toothbrushes. All include not only supply lists and step-by-step directions, but expected results, explanations of the science concepts involved, follow-up questions and cramped but usually helpful photos. Many also include potential glitches—a rare feature that, in the case of efforts to light up an LED with potatoes or lemons, manifests as a frank, detailed record of one failure after another (now, that’s science!). Admitting defeat at last, the author and her partners go on to design and construct a slingshot to dispose of all the used groceries.

Experimenters may have to squint to read some of the more heavily colored inset boxes, but they shouldn’t have major trouble gathering materials, following the steps or adapting most of the demos into science-fair projects. Young closes with general science-fair advice, plus keys for all of the entries to the Next Generation Science Standards.

Science fun, with both terms emphasized equally. (general and materials indices) (Nonfiction. 10-14)

interactive e-books MY INCREDIBLE BODY

Zybright Zybright $6.99 | Apr. 17, 2014 1.1.00; Apr. 17, 2014

Interactive features grab young readers’ attention, encouraging them to manipulate images, exploring the ways different systems fit together in the human body.

This multilayered informational experience explores eight systems: the nervous, digestive, respiratory, skeletal, urinary, sensory, muscular and cardiovascular systems. It combines audio, visual and interactive elements to engage readers, as they watch videos, learn about specific organs and structures, and take animated “rocket tours” through medically accurate 3-D models. Within each section there is an icon representing the whole body; tapping it allows young readers to add and take away different systems, virtually “dissecting” the body as they peel away layers. Narrated tours and videos provide accessible, friendly introductions to each system. Outstanding illustrations, excellent narration and relatively simple text keep readers engaged throughout. Navigation would be improved by a table of contents accessible from each page, icon labels and soundeffect setting controls. For a more detailed digital exploration, see DK’s multitouch enhanced iBook, The Human Body, which has more text and fewer interactive elements. Younger readers might enjoy exploring the wordless interactive app Human Body (TinyBop, 2013).

Combine the magic of Ms. Frizzle’s bus with realistic 3-D digital imagery to get a sense of what it’s like to manipulate the images in this dynamic app. (Requires iOS 7 and above.) (iPad informational app. 8-12)

LAURA’S JOURNEY TO THE STARS

Baumgart, Klaus Illus. by Baumgart, Klaus Bastei Luebbe GmbH & Co. KG $2.99 | Apr. 27, 2014 1.0.2; Apr. 27, 2014

Two siblings travel in their rocket ship to find a dog star in this sleepy, sweet

adventure.

Big sister Laura believes there’s a special star for everyone, so she and little brother Tommy build a rocket ship and set off in search of a dog star, the special star for Tommy’s toy “protect-me dog.” Of course, their journey to the stars doesn’t actually begin until the two fall asleep, but within moments of shut-eye, they’re in outer space, discovering where all the lost socks, Lego blocks, candy and pencils wind up. Along the journey—illustrated in 132

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“As in many other apps, touching characters and items on the screen creates little moments, but these are especially clever, fitting in well with the skewed, atomic-age art style.” from even monsters are shy

textured watercolors—preschoolers may discover over 80 animations or tappable elements, along with three interactive games: a navigation game, a sock-matching game and a whack-an-alien game. When the siblings finally reach the dog star, they jump from bone to bone, giving little ones the opportunity to tap the bones and create music, all the while lulled by a sleepy-time soundtrack. Parents will appreciate the nocturnal aid, along with three language choices and a page index, but there is no pre-reading word-association here (no text at all), and Baumgart’s narrative teeters on the edge of yawn at times, which doesn’t bode well for bedtime-favorite status.

Still, this bedtime adventure is worth the trip, if mostly for the sentimental “siblings in space” journey. (Requires iOS 6 and above.) (iPad storybook app. 3-6)

THE SWAMP WHERE GATOR HIDES

Berkes, Marianne Illus. by Baird, Roberta Dawn Publications $2.99 | Apr. 30, 2014 1.1; May 1, 2014

Don’t let this well-written swamp story with its layered rhyme structure and sleepy narration deceive you: The mysterious gator will not hide forever, because lunchtime is coming….

In this app based on the printed book of the same name, the three-dimensional swamp and all its inhabitants come to life with tappable, interactive elements that engage readers visually. The duck dives, the spider weaves her web, the brilliant red insect crawls about the log, and the cricket jumps, while the words on the page are highlighted along with the narration.

There are nine creatures who are all potential prey for the gator: the duck who paddles in ooze, the turtle who takes a snooze and so on. Conspicuously absent here are the swamp sounds: the crickets and frogs and that potentially fabulous ooze. The story is packed with powerful verbs that deserve ample sound effects, but readers swipe to the next page in silence but for the narration. A page index would have been helpful as well. The swamp tale ends with readers wielding the power to either give the gator his lunch or spare his prey. This is followed by a game that gives quick-on-the-tap readers the chance to spare all the creatures from the gator’s hungry jaws.

It’s visually first-rate, but this gator story deserves a few more digital enhancements—something sonic for a start!— to give the swamp the respect it’s due. (iPad storybook app. 3-7)

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EVEN MONSTERS ARE SHY

Bruza, Michael Busy Bee $1.99 | Mar. 20, 2014 1.0; Mar. 20, 2014

Affection for his boy boosts a pet monster’s confidence with spectacular results in a breezy, enjoyable app.

In a world where people keep brightly colored, friendly monsters as companions—sort of like overgrown dogs—a kid named Ben receives a blue beast named Gurk as a birthday gift. Gurk is sweet but terribly shy.

The puppylike creature hides in a closet and won’t interact with anyone but Ben. Gurk’s shyness causes Ben to miss the circus, but to make up for it, Gurk organizes an all-monster circus that turns out to be even better than the regular one.

Soon, Gurk is teaching other monsters how to overcome their own shyness. Narrated in the voice of Ben with boyish enthusiasm, the story presents plenty of surprises, mostly in background animations. As in many other apps, touching characters and items on the screen creates little moments, but these are especially clever, fitting in well with the skewed, atomic-age art style. There are also eight games, but they’re short and simple, enhancing rather than distracting from the story. A high-wire balancing game at the circus and another that involves shooting marshmallows at targets are highlights.

There’s lots of energy in the presentation, even with navigation that is unobtrusive and neat.

As a story, it’s rather slight, but it does what it sets out to do well and with a sunny disposition to boot. (iPad storybook app. 4-7)

LADYBUG ZEE

CoolAsh Studios CoolAsh Studio $1.99 | Apr. 6, 2014 1.0.1; May 3, 2014 A ladybug helps a friend and learns to fly.

Ladybug Zee, a cartoon critter who wears high-heel red boots for some reason, wants to help her caterpillar friend, Mony, by collecting leaves to eat. What follows is a soggy trek through different locales including a corn field and a swampy bog, but it’s an uninspired time riddled with typos (“Find six peaces [sic] of the map and put them together and you will find food for your friend”), badly formatted quotation marks and wan puzzles.

These include a matching game, a jigsaw-style map puzzle and a “Frogger”-style challenge that’s become shorthand in children’s apps for, “We’ve run out of ideas.” The illustrations and rudimentary animation are flat and uninteresting, and the text if full of garbled sentences such as, “But now morning is coming, sun is already up in the sky and it is time for her to wake up.” By the time Mony transforms into a butterfly and Zee learns to fly with

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“By its final sections, when stakes are highest, the way the app balances an engaging interactive experience with a deep narrative becomes truly impressive.” from loose strands

the help of a counting game, the lack of inspiration in the story makes the quick wrap-up ending that follows very welcome Some younger kids will enjoy the story, which briefly branches off in three directions before coming back together, but many storybook apps do the same kind of thing much better. (iPad storybook app. 4-6)

SEAMUS HEANEY: FIVE FABLES

Henryson, Robert TouchPress $11.99 | May 22, 2014 1.0.0; May 22, 2014

Fifteenth-century versions of five fables get lavish makeovers in this starand feature-studded app.

Three of the tales are usually ascribed to Aesop; the two others, which feature a clever fox and a foolish wolf, are drawn from other sources. Henryson considerably expanded his episodes’ pithy progenitors: “The Lion and the Mouse,” for instance, here runs to 36 verses of seven lines each plus seven more verses of “Moralitas,” opening with an introductory dream in which the writer begs a reluctant Aesop for “…’ane prettie fabill / Concludand with ane gude moralitie.” Menu options at the bottom of each screen allow readers to view the tales in the author’s original thick but penetrable Middle Scots verse or in Heaney’s modern translation, as well as side by side or in 12- to 14-minute animated renditions with ebullient readings (Heaney’s by actor Billy Connolly) of either alternative. A slide-in sidebar offers scholarly glosses, and in additional video clips, Heaney, Connolly and others deliver introductory synopses and background commentary. Though this collection is not specifically aimed at younger audiences, occasional lyrical or poignant passages—and even flashes of wit—lighten the sententious moralizing. Furthermore, at least in the animated versions, the violence (songbirds trapped and killed in “The Preaching of the Swallow,” the wolf beaten bloody in “The Fox, The Wolf and the Carter”) is either not shown or toned down.

High production values brighten this feature-rich offspring of one of Heaney’s last works and a BBC miniseries.

(Requires iOS 7.0 and above.) (introduction, bibliography) (iPad folklore app. 10-13, adult)

LOOSE STRANDS

Moyes, Markian Illus. by Frizzell, Jeff Darned Sock Productions $6.99 | May 4, 2014 1.0; May 4, 2014 A twisty app with a Choose-Your-OwnAdventure-style conceit surprises as a fully realized, memorable fantasy novel.

Nine-year-old Roland Bartholomew Dexter III lives in a home that’s part barbershop, part jail. His clothes, his bedding 134

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and even his food are made of hair, a circumstance his loving, fearful parents have never adequately explained. As Roland begins to explore his origins, he learns that his dreams, which vividly show what would have happened if he’d made other decisions during the day, may be the key to freedom for his whole family. The many short pages of the app make up a gigantic grid; the endless strands of Roland’s hair weave through it, and at any time, readers can view the map to “see” where they are in the story. Readers make choices by navigating one way or the other, and they can use the map to revisit pages. When a choice is made, pages that no longer apply are blacked out, a nod to one of the story’s themes: the destructiveness of censorship. It seems gimmicky at first, but the writing is wise and witty, even Snicket-y. Roland’s choices in the story are limited and sometimes lead to dead ends, but the story overall is clever enough to sustain any backtracking. By its final sections, when stakes are highest, the way the app balances an engaging interactive experience with a deep narrative becomes truly impressive.

Fantasy readers who love to explore will have days or weeks of entrancing material to obsess over. (Requires iPad 2 and above.) (iPad fantasy app. 9-14)

BOJ THE COLLECTOR

Pesky Productions Box of Frogs Media $3.99 | May 19, 2014 1.0; May 19, 2014

A mildly interactive extension of the BBC’s popular animated series for young children.

Before starring in his own storybook app, Boj the bilby (a desert-dwelling marsupial) was delighting kids all over the U.K. with his television series for young children. In this iPad adaptation of an episode, Boj learns what a collection is. Many of his adorable, bubbly friends collect things they love: trophies, robots, hats and stuffed animals. Wanting to start a collection of his own, Boj traverses Giggly Park and gathers some seemingly insignificant treasures. When his friends question the value of his finds, Boj decides to use those items to build things that will add to his friends’ collections. This app is technologically simple. Little fingers can help Boj gather things (though the text says Boj is doing it), and finger taps summon a host of basic animated movements and interactions. Robots chirp, stuffed animals squeak, trophies sparkle. There are two games embedded within the story, one to help Boj collect items and another puzzlelike activity to help him build things. There’s an original song at the end, complete with karaoke lyrics. The only bug is a frustratingly unresponsive icon that’s supposed to take readers back to the home screen; repeated finger taps finally prevail.

The story definitely succeeds at capturing a near-universal childhood impulse and is likely to be a preschool favorite. (iPad storybook app. 2-6)

ON THE NIGHT YOU WERE BORN

French or Spanish, three levels of difficulty and recording options.

Conversation avatars for adult and child can also be personalized.

Three different reading levels and many creative ideas give tremendous added value to an entertaining outing with a favorite friend. (iPad storybook app. 4-8)

Tillman, Nancy Illus. by Tillman, Nancy Auryn $4.99 | Feb. 4, 2014 1.0.3; Mar. 21, 2014

A digital adaptation of the New York Times best-seller.

The iPad version of Tillman’s popular picture book has a lot going for it. First and foremost, her lush illustrations shine on the tablet screen. Second, Auryn, a developer that’s known for turning out unique, inventive storybook apps, is at the technological helm. They have embedded so many interactions, in fact, that they might overwhelm readers. For example, there are options to record a voice-over of the entire story or provide personalized, page-by-page “whispers” for the moon to utter, but the setup for the latter is rather cumbersome. Kids will love hearing characters occasionally speak their names (which are recorded at the outset). But when the software changes the vocal frequency for various animals, at times it sounds eerily similar to Darth Vader. Still, Auryn hits it out of the park when swarms of birds, ladybugs and glowing lanterns rise to spell out the child’s name. It’s spectacular. And there are other cool components, such as a scrapbook feature that allows for the storage of up to six homespun videos. Advancing pages is counterintuitive (the compulsory index scrolls upward) and exceptionally slow, if also extremely beautiful in the transitions.

Nevertheless, it’s a tasteful and loving adaptation; those who love the original book will find much to admire here. (Requires iOS 6 and above.) (iPad storybook app. 2-6)

CURIOUS GEORGE AND THE FIREFIGHTERS

continuing series ON IMPACT!

Ball, Nate Illus. by Pamintuan, Macky Harper/HarperCollins | (112 pp.) $15.99 | $4.99 paper | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-06-231492-5 978-0-06-221629-8 paper Alien in My Pocket, 4 (Science fiction. 8-12)

P IS FOR PIRATE

A Pirate Alphabet Bunting, Eve Illus. by Manders, John Sleeping Bear | (40 pp.) $15.95 | Aug. 1, 2014 978-1-58536-815-0 Sleeping Bear Alphabets (Informational picture book. 6-10)

TRAINS CAN FLOAT

Tribal Nova Tribal Nova $2.99 | May 28, 2014 1.0.0; May 28, 2014

In classic Curious George form, a visit to the fire station includes a little havoc and a lot of humor and is here paired with a reading method developed through McGill University to nurture emergent literacy.

Designed to be read with an adult (although professional narration is an option), the app includes extensive reading tips for parents with lots of recommendations to foster comprehension and language skills. Prompting tips throughout keep the conversation going and cue readers to animations such as fire trucks with sirens, barking fire dogs and a juggling George, each one strategically placed to increase learning. Words and objects are animated simultaneously when tapped, and parents are prompted to discuss each scene. Children can even explore storytelling themselves in the enjoyable theater section, where they can record and narrate their own fully animated scenes. The settings offer options for English, |

And Other Fun Facts DiSiena, Laura Lyn; Eliot, Hannah Illus. by Oswald, Pete Little Simon | (32 pp.) $17.99 | $5.99 paper | Aug. 19, 2014 978-1-4814-0281-1 978-1-4814-0280-4 paper Did You Know?

(Informational picture book. 4-8)

CHARLIE JOE JACKSON’S GUIDE TO MAKING MONEY

Greenwald, Tommy Illus. by Coovert, J.P. Roaring Brook | (208 pp.) $13.99 | Aug. 26, 2014 978-1-59643-840-8 Charlie Joe Jackson, 4 (Fiction. 9-12)

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BLUE RIBBON SUMMER

SWATCH OUT!

Hapka, Catherine Aladdin | (208 pp.) $16.99 | $5.99 paper | Jul. 8, 2014 978-1-4814-0340-5 978-1-4814-0339-9 paper Marguerite Henry’s Ponies of Chincoteague, 2 (Fiction. 8-12)

Taylor, Chloe Illus. by Zhang, Nancy Simon Spotlight | (176 pp.) $16.99 | $5.99 paper | Jul. 8, 2014 978-1-4814-1536-1 978-1-4814-1535-4 paper Sew Zoey, 8 (Fiction. 8-12)

FLASHPOINT

DEADLY LITTLE SINS

Korman, Gordon Scholastic | (224 pp.) $12.99 | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-545-52147-5 39 Clues: Unstoppable, 4 (Adventure. 8-12)

Taylor, Kara St. Martin’s Griffin | (304 pp.) $9.99 paper | Aug. 5, 2014 978-1-250-03363-5 paper Prep School Confidential, 3 (Suspense. 14-18)

FRANKIE VS. THE MUMMY’S MENACE

THE PHANTOM MUSIC BOX

Lampard, Frank Scholastic | (112 pp.) $4.99 paper | Jul. 29, 2014 978-0-545-66618-3 paper Frankie’s Magic Soccer Ball, 4 (Fiction. 7-10)

Weyn, Suzanne Scholastic | (208 pp.) $6.99 paper | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-545-58845-4 paper Haunted Museum, 2 (Fantasy. 8-12)

M IS FOR MONSTER A Fantastic Creatures Alphabet Lewis, J. Patrick Illus. by Kelley, Gerald Sleeping Bear | (32 pp.) $16.99 | Aug. 1, 2014 978-1-58536-818-1 Sleeping Bear Alphabets (Informational picture book. 6-10)

GET LOST, ODYSSEUS!

McMullan, Kate Stone Arch | (240 pp.) $10.95 | Aug. 1, 2014 978-1-4342-9194-3 Myth-O-Mania, 10 (Fantasy. 9-13)

PUT YOUR DIAMONDS UP!

Simone, Ni-Ni; Abrams, Amir Kteen | (288 pp.) $9.95 paper | Jul. 29, 2014 978-0-7582-8852-3 paper Hollywood High, 3 (Fiction. 14-18)

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indie DOUBLE LOVER Confessions of a Hermaphrodite

These titles earned the Kirkus Star: STEIN HOUSE by Myra Hargrave McIlvain...................................143

Anonymous iUniverse (538 pp.) $27.95 paper | Aug. 14, 2013 978-1-4759-8526-9

THE SENSE OF TOUCH by Ron Parsons............................................147

STEIN HOUSE

McIlvain, Myra Hargrave iUniverse (302 pp.) $28.95 | $18.95 paper | $3.99 e-book Oct. 18, 2013 978-1-4917-0953-5

This latest reissue of a modern classic (an earlier edition called Hermaphrodeity,

by Alan Friedman, was nominated for the National Book Award in 1973) shows the many lives and loves of a hermaphrodite.

Early on in life, a little girl named Millie Nemos begins to suspect she might be different from other girls. Precocious sex games with her brother Sandy provoke very confusing reactions, and by the time she enters college, she’s sarcastically aware of the whole truth: “I was their prize—Harvard’s only genuine hermaphrodite.” Her story is a ribald, hugely entertaining tale of sexual encounters and torrid love affairs (and occasionally even “beatific, humdrum love”) in far-flung locales, as Millie—and her masculine self, Willie—wanders hilariously all over the sexual landscape. There’s a combustible relationship with the sultry Flaminia (the author has a good deal of innocent fun with character names) and a more complicated, long-term encounter with her boss, professor Satori—“I see his heavy head with its shag rug of yellow-white hair, I see his ugly nose (enormous—more than a facial feature, it was a trademark), I see the thick, dirty nails with which he scraped walls and dirt and powdery clay and spidery coral”—and with another powerful older man, the enigmatic art collector Mr. Tieger. All the while, Millie/Willie searches restlessly for a deeper purpose in life, compulsively reading and writing with the mindset that “there was a mystery in me, ancient and undeciphered and prehuman.” The author (anonymous this time around) packs this story of “the mind-splitting polarity of my personality—a public man with a private womb”—with entertaining, often quite lovely prose. Deeper philosophical ruminations on the nature of sexuality and poetry run convincingly alongside well-done adventures in exotic locations; in a standout episode, there’s an interlude in “the blind glory of Venice” and a taut encounter there with a surprisingly complex gondolier. The book’s climactic turn into the world of big business and tricky advertising forms a perfect coda to this story about selling a narrative of the self.

An utterly captivating story of identity whose reissue should be heartily welcomed.

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want to Self-publish? collaborate.

Photo by Lambda Lit

The term “self-publishing” has become a bit of a misnomer. Paul Hanson, general manager of Village Books in Bellingham, Washington, says that he’s seen local authors “move toward ‘indie-publishing’ rather than ‘self-publishing.’ ” The difference is that self-published authors do all the work themselves, while indie publishers, he says, “know when to hire professionals to help them do the work that the authors can’t (or shouldn’t) do themselves.”

But before searching for an editor, authors will want to evaluate their own needs. Does the work require a developmental, collaborative or copy edit? What’s the budget? A smaller budget doesn’t necessarily mean that a quality edit is out of reach. One strategy may be to farm out the work to willing and able friends, dust off your copy of The Elements of Style, join a writers’ workshop and revise until the book feels completely polished before hiring a vetted editor.

Of course, hiring a qualified professional can be tricky. Start by asking candidates the right questions.

Has the prospective editor worked as a full-time editor?

Where? For how long? What style is he or she most familiar with? Many magazine and newspaper editors use AP style (as does Kirkus Reviews), but book editors tend to use Chicago Manual of Style (as does Kirkus Editorial, the book editing division of Kirkus Media).

Consider several candidates and ask them to take a short edit test. The test will not only reveal if the editor has the chops, but how well you might work together. (Some editors might not take an edit test. In this case, ask to talk with previous clients.) Feel free to check the rates of Kirkus Editorial online to get a sense of what’s reasonable.

– Karen Schechner Karen Schechner is the senior Indie editor at Kirkus Reviews.

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HEROES AND GIANTS

Ashby, Douglas B. Tate Publishing & Enterprise, LLC (324 pp.) $14.98 paper | Apr. 29, 2013 978-1-62902-553-7 The heart-and-guts career of a California firefighter whose good days saw children saved and bad days saw loved ones lost.

At the time, Ashby’s choice of profession seemed random. A self-described “non-directional male,” he went to the courthouse to pay some parking tickets and saw a recruitment flier for the Pasadena Fire Department.

It was the late 1960s, and fighting fires while attending college seemed like a better choice than Vietnam. Little did Ashby know he would spend the next 30-plus years crawling through smoke-filled buildings, racing to accident scenes and saving lives. In this sometimes humorous, sometimes heart-rending memoir, Ashby rises from lowly recruit at Pasadena to battalion chief with the Los Angeles County Fire Department. The author recounts with authentic detail the horrific incidents that firefighters encounter. In one instance, he and his crewmates responded to an apartment where a man had slashed his girlfriend with a machete and then buried the blade in his own neck, nearly decapitating himself. There are also harrowing accounts of river rescues, gang shootings and even a bomb threat at a sex-toy warehouse. More revealing is how Ashby coped psychologically during grueling 56-hour workweeks. He describes a mental “filing cabinet” where he stashed the “terrible things I’ve seen that would otherwise scar my soul.” The book’s stomach-turning tragedies are counterbalanced with more prosaic reminiscences about first loves, old chums and fatherhood. Yet Ashby doesn’t shy away from the darker corners of his life, including his problems with alcohol and the murder of his nephew. Given that he often witnessed the ugliest side of humanity, Ashby might be forgiven if his words carried a cynical edge; instead, he writes with a sanguine, sympathetic outlook that acknowledges bad things happen to everyone. His personal credo reflects the workmanlike attitude of emergency professionals who confront calamity every day: “We do all we can, and it has to be enough.”

Bloodcurdling recollections from a regular guy who answered the call when the alarm bell rang.

TO DO THE DEAL A Novel in Stories Baker, Cathy Demitasse Press

Baker’s debut novel, made up of 10 linked stories, traces the financial and emotional trials of a young family over the course of a decade.

In this unusual domestic drama, Kenneth and Jodi Bodine aren’t fighting, and their marriage is not crumbling. When quietly optimistic Kenneth lies to his wife, it’s not to hide a secret affair but because he’s lost his job over a morally gray quibble. While Jodi periodically reflects on Kenneth’s frustrating silence and worries about his lack of career ambition, she’s loyal, supportive and forgiving. When she pleads with him in the final story not to quit his sales position, she says, “Don’t you realize that you’ve had nine different jobs since I met you?” He replies, “Yes. And doesn’t that make life interesting?” Kenneth’s employment woes begin in 1991, when the recently wed couple settles into a D.C.-area home, expecting their firstborn child.

Each of the subsequent tales, one per year up to 2000, shows Jodi balancing motherhood with her freelance editing gig and Kenneth constantly taking on new jobs, including work in construction, property management, and selling everything from cars to mattresses. In “Owen the Impervious,” the couple hosts Kenneth’s estranged but determined father, whom Jodi regards with increasing skepticism as his stay extends indefinitely. In “A Short Career at the Cathedral Arms,” Kenneth discovers that a homeless person lives in a hidden room in the apartment building he manages. The stories gradually culminate in the dawning of the Internet era, suggesting new opportunities but also greater challenges. Some stories, such as “One Sunday,” focus less on developing the Bodine bond, instead zeroing in on Jodi as she ponders “life and all its ancillary operations, questions and few answers.” Baker is an observant and entertaining writer, even when the subdued plot unfurls without high drama or overt tension. Her clean, direct style refreshingly portrays the tender side of a relationship that could have ended badly. It also effectively underscores the awkward discussions that nearly every family endures.

A fragmented but hopeful impression of family matters.

LORD MOIRA’S ECHO

Bennett, Stuart CreateSpace (232 pp.) $14.95 paper | $2.99 e-book Feb. 18, 2014 978-1-4944-7519-2 Bennett (The Perfect Visit, 2011), in his second work of historical fiction, explores Francis Rawdon-Hastings’ relationship to a young Jane Austen and her effect on him well after her death.

In a story that jumps back and forth between 1801 and 1823, Hastings—a real man known as Lord Moira from age 40 to his early 60s—was taken with two young, awe-inspiring women: Jane Austen and, later, the novel’s fictitious Vanessa Horwood.

Austen, the budding British writer, and Horwood, a Canadian musician, share a certain likeness that Lord Moira cannot ignore. While Moira develops feelings for Horwood, her life becomes more entwined with Austen’s. As Moira attempts to mask his past flirtations with Austen, Horwood’s well-being is put at stake. Horwood, who is acquainted with Austen’s siblings, finds herself caught with a dark, secretive financial burden, a downfall of the Austen family that author Bennett embellishes for dramatic effect. With scholarly knowledge of Austen’s life and works, Bennett uses what little the world knows of Austen’s young life to his advantage and inserts some cleverly written pieces to the unfinished puzzle. Although unlikely, there’s a chance Moira and Austen may have shared an intimate connection during these years, and Bennett offers hypothetical explanations behind Austen’s earlier works and her mysterious personal life. Austen fans searching for another intriguing though debatable theory will find plenty to sift through here.

Austen neophytes, however, will most likely need to conduct some additional research to appreciate this historical fiction that has hints of fan fiction. The cumbersome cast of characters, some real, some imagined, would be easier to digest with some previous knowledge of Austen’s life and works. Nevertheless, dialogue between characters is often captivating, and the book reads splendidly.

Engaging food for thought for Austen fans.

THE FLIP

Cash, Michael Phillip CreateSpace (392 pp.) $14.99 paper | $0.99 e-book May 4, 2014 978-1-4973-4551-5 In Cash’s (Collision, 2014) horror novel, a young couple confronts malicious spirits while renovating a Victorian mansion.

Real estate investors Brad and Julie have flipped a series of homes, with each property netting them enough cash to buy and renovate the next. He loves losing himself in the physical labor, while she handles the paperwork. But their latest purchase, the Bedlam House on Long Island, feels different. As Brad sorts through the mounds of trash in the dilapidated basement, he starts to resent his wife; Julie had insisted they buy the mansion, as she was drawn to its sales potential. The harder Brad works, however, the stranger Bedlam House becomes. One day, he hears an odd rumbling, and when he breaks through a plaster wall, he finds a subbasement filled with crates containing a huge trove of “the stuff of everyday life dating back to who knew when.” Unbeknownst to Brad, two ghosts, Tessa and Gerald, are watching him. Tessa intends to seduce the young husband—something he might not survive. However, Gerald warns her that threatening |

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“[T]he ridiculousness becomes fairly intriguing as this fun, quick read examines the envies and dissatisfactions in women’s lives, reassuring readers that no one’s life is truly perfect.” from she sins at midnight

his life will cause the mysterious creatures known as Sentinels to interfere, which neither ghost wants. This is familiar genre territory, but Cash’s breezy prose and sharply drawn characters shine. For example, he quickly portrays Tessa as a spoiled princess when she tells Gerald, “If [Brad] throws away my fox stole, you are going to have to kill him.” The author executes haunting scenes with a perfect balance of style and substance: “Nails caressed the back of his neck, and he whipped around, rattled, his eyes wild.” The narrative’s pacing and tone, though, are perhaps its most enjoyable aspects. Cash lets readers’ expectations simmer throughout, and he encourages them to cheer for both the ghouls and the greedy couple—and to look forward to whatever horrific climax awaits them. That said, the tidy ending is the only place where Cash’s control works against him; readers will likely crave a much livelier mess.

A deliciously deft horror page-turner.

Chuman, Joseph CreateSpace (324 pp.) $14.99 paper | $8.99 e-book Mar. 20, 2014 978-1-4928-0446-8

This collection of essays, taken from talks given by the author to Ethical Culture audiences over a 35-year span, explores the philosophy and history of ethics.

Chuman (Why the Ethical Movement Is so Small and What We Can Do About It, 1988) has been a pillar of the Ethical Culture movement for nearly five decades. This diverse collection introduces lay readers to what it means to be ethical and humanistic and how this moral stance differs from those based purely on reason or religion. After establishing that an ethical person “recognizes the importance of moral values and intends to act on them,” Chuman’s book breaks into four sections: “Ethics in Private Life,” which discusses subjects pertinent to the individual, such as sin and the pursuit of happiness; “Public Questions,” featuring topics one encounters in public life and how to address them, such as politics and the criticism of religion; “Humanist Heroes,” a survey of freethinkers throughout history, including Spinoza and the Founding Fathers; and “Interpretations of Ethical Culture,” which details the movement’s facets, from its spiritual tolerance to the value of reason. Throughout, Chuman uses his rigorous intellect—and savvy as a lecturer—to challenge dangerous suppositions, never backing away from difficult questions. In “A Humanist Looks at Sin,” he brings startling lucidity to the argument: “The problem of the notion of sin is that it makes a fetish and a celebration out of a particular aspect of human experience,” he says. “It seizes upon and dogmatizes pessimism.” And Chuman succeeds in maintaining a conversational tone; he never rants or condescends, even when covering basic ideas. For example, “The giving of myself in the effort to help another, not simply with transitory assistance, but in a way which leads toward his or her growth and greater actualization, |

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SHE SINS AT MIDNIGHT Dineen, Whitney CreateSpace (292 pp.) $12.95 paper | $5.99 e-book Mar. 4, 2014 978-1-4961-5045-5

This whirlwind comedy/drama, Dineen’s debut, centers on Lila Montgomery and her high school crush, a hilarious cat fight with a Hollywood starlet and her award-winning romance novel

SPEAKING OF ETHICS Living a Humanist Life

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is what I mean by caring.” Further into the collection, he delves into more fine-grained discussions, such as the problem with extreme secularism, which reward readers not only with provocative displays of reasoning, but with electrifying insights: “We are creatures of reason, to be sure….But our humanity extends far more broadly than our reason does.”

Critical reading not only for those who want to improve the world, but also for those who think we shouldn’t bother.

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nobody knows about.

Thirty-two-year-old Lila is single and bored, working as a personal assistant to a sex-crazed, crooked Hollywood agent.

Fed up with her job and unfulfilled in her lonely, childless life, she spends her free time writing explicit romance fantasy stories under the pseudonym Jasmine Sheath. When an invitation to her 15-year high school reunion comes in the mail, she decides to leave California for three weeks and spend some time figuring her life out in the comfort of her Illinois hometown. Drama ensues when famous actress Melinda Forrester—recently nominated for an Oscar for her depiction of a drug-addicted hooker and college student who becomes an Olympic track star—sues Lila for spreading rumors about her promiscuity. To complicate matters further, Jasmine Sheath’s publisher is requiring her to do a book signing in her hometown, revealing her true identity to the world. On top of that, Melinda’s lawyer in the lawsuit is none other than Lila’s high school crush. Dineen’s novel is packed with campy twists that thicken the plot while propelling it into absurdity. Dineen splices Lila’s story with the fantasy she wrote as Jasmine Sheath, which, despite its being a comical allegory for the “real world” drama, can get confusing. However, if understood as a satire of romance novels and Hollywood drama, the ridiculousness becomes fairly intriguing as this fun, quick read examines the envies and dissatisfactions in women’s lives, reassuring readers that no one’s life is truly perfect.

An amusing, ultimately heartwarming romp through the ridiculousness of tabloid gossip and hometown comforts.

999 A History of Chicago in Ten Stories Fizdale, Richard B. Ampersand Inc. (260 pp.) $79.95 | Apr. 15, 2014 978-1-4675-4528-0

This unique history centers on the prehistory, founding and residents of 999 Lake Shore Dr., an apartment building that symbolizes Chicago’s wealthy class.

Fizdale’s beautifully illustrated debut is a labor of love about his home, the architectural marvel 999 Lake Shore Dr. in the historic Chicago neighborhood of Streeterville. After catastrophic losses in the wake of the famous Chicago Fire of 1871, entrepreneurs and real estate watchers set their sights on the north side of the city, looking to build Lake Shore Drive, now a major thoroughfare on Chicago’s lakeside. Fizdale portrays the characters in those subsequent years: Potter Palmer, a visionary innovator of the department store, and George “Cap” Streeter, who schemed to create a land claim in Lake Michigan by allowing others to dump tons of garbage around his wrecked boat. Fizdale’s treatment of Streeter’s comic drama paints him larger than life, detailing his absurd machinations for stealing back “his” land, including the construction of a rudimentary tank out of a car, a small house and Gatling guns. Buoyed by the high quality of Fizdale’s research, Streeter’s story entertains immensely; at times, the book feels like the outline for a cable series, twisting and turning through Chicago real estate lore. Later, Fizdale’s vignettes of the many families that occupied 999 reveal a variety of human experience among wealthy Chicagoans. Each passage is a glimpse into a life among many, whether it’s someone who helped figure out how to remove sulfur from crude oil, a Rockefeller descendant who contacted her “spiritual bridegroom” via séance, or a tenant’s great-grandfather who died after gunpowder experiments went bad. Actors, socialites, gangsters, entrepreneurs and clerks all stayed there.

Throughout, Fizdale’s humorous tone adeptly guides readers: “John [Kraft] processed, packaged and sold cheese. Then he did it again and again and again….Even wife June got into the act.

She was a ‘cheese industry librarian.’ ” As Fizdale states in his introduction, “history never yields all of its secrets”; yet here we have a reconstruction that, though small in scope, uncovers the secret texture of life in another age. Numerous illustrations, maps, and black-and-white and color photos—taking up about as much space as the text—help enliven the work further.

Despite its specificity, this history is a small wonder, providing a fun but thorough look into one of Chicago’s greatest living spaces.

OF THE LILIN

Hampton, Paulette Self (360 pp.) $13.99 paper | $2.99 e-book Feb. 6, 2014 978-0-615-96456-0 In this debut fantasy novel, after family tragedy, college-age Sage Frankle discovers her supernatural capabilities and bloodline legacy.

Sage stands numb in front of a casket. She recently lost her mom to cancer, and now her stepfather’s friend David has died of unexpected heart failure. Her stepfather, off the wagon and wild with grief, tries to strangle her, and Sage’s world goes black. Before she knows it, her stepfather is in an alcohol treatment center, and she has put her college classes on hold to live with her aunt Ilia at the latter’s inn in another part of Vermont. Sage goes for counseling but is too depressed, too scared to delve deep. She doesn’t remember what happened with David, but she seems to read others’ thoughts and has been having odd dreams. Her cousin Lilly, who had left for a trip around the time of David’s demise, returns home, drawing to the surface the dark energy lurking throughout the inn. Sage either sees or imagines Lilly in bondage sex with the local “Playboy Chef,” who is then weakened by a mystery illness. Handsome, angelic Lucien, whom Lilly treats as her master, arrives on the scene, as do Tate, a sweet, nerdy mythology major and son of the ailing chef, and Desden, Sage’s gay tattoo artist best friend from home. As Sage’s strange behavior escalates, Ilia finally explains all, and the group bands together to deal with the girls’ powers and the “portal” gateway of the inn. To launch this planned series of tales focused on these alluring young women, debut author Hampton sets up a diverse cast of players and a solid, believable back story that draws from Jewish folklore. Some of the characters, such as a crime writer who’s a frequent guest at the inn, are rather awkwardly introduced, perhaps to be further developed in future installments. Overall, however, Hampton conjures a heady blend of eroticism, fantasy, humor and coming-of-age angst that should appeal to both Twilight and Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans.

Ambitious, entertaining start to a sexy YA paranormal adventure series.

BEFORE THE FLOCK

Inglish, David Winston Horton Bay Books (434 pp.) $19.89 paper | $9.99 e-book Mar. 7, 2014 978-0-615-79081-7 Inglish’s whirlwind novel follows a washed-up rocker and a fledgling model struggling to balance the excesses of superstardom. |

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“[A]n expertly written examination of the importance of dreams to the human psyche.” from american past time

Kurt Franklin, the hero of Inglish’s superbly frenzied fiction set in 1980s Los Angeles and New York, has seen better days. A musician and compulsive groomer, he’s been placed on psychiatric disability by his physician, who prescribed him Mellaril, a “thought suppressant.” Even worse, Kurt’s wife, Priscilla, has announced she needs some time apart. His brother James appears with a proposition: Give up drugs and pray, and Kurt just might get his life back.

Inglish then spins his narrative toward Sophie Clark, an eighth grader and an aspiring model for sleazy agency owner Giuseppe Cassavetes, who disingenuously whisks her off to his Jamaican compound for a crash course in sex and life. Meanwhile, his prayers answered almost overnight, Kurt preps his new band, Thunderstick, for skyrocketing success, with album releases, groupies and an influential management team ushering in their exploding fame.

Sophie’s young life as a model becomes complicated with a rape and an STD, yet she craves stardom and will do whatever it takes to get it. After European runway work provides money, fame and drugs, she meets and begins dating Kurt’s brother, and both plots artfully converge into a blur of rock gigs, sex and expository melodrama—all depicted with pitch-perfect clarity, as if Inglish had actually lived through it all. The author expertly keeps both plots in motion, issuing a hard-knocks education for Kurt and Sophie as their stars ascend; hubris consumes them, and by decade’s end, they crash and burn but come back again as Priscilla returns with a vengeance. It’s a fun ride for them and vicariously thrilling for readers. Demonstrating a knack for authentic period detail (early in her career, Sophie poses for a photo shoot in a sleeveless neon T-shirt, fishnets and combat boots), Inglish compellingly portrays Sophie’s topsy-turvy model lifestyle and Kurt’s stressed-out rocker world, propelling the novel ever further into a cyclone of fashion and bass guitar riffs.

Evokes the heart and soul of the era with a balance of decadence and desperation.

AMERICAN PAST TIME

Joy, Len Hark! New Era Publishing (410 pp.) $15.00 paper | $7.99 e-book Apr. 19, 2014 978-0-9916659-0-7 Dancer Stonemason, a minor league pitcher, falls into a downward spiral in Joy’s debut novel.

This darkly nostalgic story is a study of an American family through good times and bad, engagingly set against major events from the 1950s to the ’70s, as issues of race simmer in the background. After pitching a perfect game, Dancer dreams of playing in the major leagues, but he never gets his chance due to a perpetually sore arm and the financial needs of his expanding family. He moves from his off-season job as a parts inspector at a Caterpillar plant to the company’s better-paying foundry, run by the Thackers, a father and son who are also members of the Ku Klux Klan. Joy vividly describes the workplace as a Dantean hell: “Once the furnace was fired up and the men started building molds, the air would be filled with carbon 142

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ash and fine black molding sand. The junk hung in the air and made everything look blurry, like a bad dream.” Stripped of his own dream, Dancer starts drinking and getting into fights; eventually, he gets arrested and becomes increasingly alienated from his wife and sons. Dancer’s older son Clayton, who once idolized him, grows to hate him, despite the fact that he’s just like Dancer in many ways. Meanwhile, Dede, Dancer’s wife, goes to work and has affairs but still helps her husband whenever he’s in trouble. Eventually, Dancer is taken in by a black milkman who’s a recovering alcoholic, a situation that eventually leads to a violent denouement and Dancer’s ultimate redemption. Overall, this novel is a natural for history buffs, filled with period details such as sting-ray bikes, Green Stamps, and the names of famous baseball players, including Spahn, Larsen, Mantle and Musial.

However, it’s also an expertly written examination of the importance of dreams to the human psyche.

A well-crafted novel that will particularly appeal to sports and history aficionados.

THE WHIP

Kondazian, Karen Hansen Publishing Group, LLC (304 pp.) $25.00 | $15.00 paper | Dec. 1, 2013 978-1-60182-307-6 In this debut historical novel, a woman disguises herself as a male stagecoach driver in order to track down the man responsible for the murder of her family.

Inspired by a true story, Kondazian conjures up the legend of Charlotte “Charley” Pankhurst, a 19th century woman who spent much of her life pretending to be a male. Charlotte, who was raised in an orphanage in Boston, falls in love with a runaway slave and bears his child. But a terrible act of cruelty leaves her mourning her family and planning vengeance on the man responsible. After Charlotte learns that her target is headed west, she decides to follow him. The old West is no place for a lone woman, however, so she disguises herself as a man and finds employment as a “whip,” or stagecoach driver. She has a series of adventures as she drives her coach up and down the California territory. She meets an actress named Anna, who later becomes her housekeeper; when Anna falls in love with her, however, Charlotte rebuffs her advances. Charlotte dons her female duds again upon arriving in San Francisco, where she falls for an outlaw named Edmund. However, her plan to take revenge for the death of her family is never far from her mind. The author, an actress, has written a novel about the old West that feels authentic in almost every sweaty detail (“The stagecoach was coming. The whole world was dust and pounding, pounding and dust”). Kondazian’s background in the world of make-believe helps her to convincingly render Charlotte’s transformation. The novel even offers a pansexual take on romance as both Charlotte and her lover seem to derive extra pleasure from the fact that she can be both a woman and a man.

An engaging, authentic depiction of life in Gold Rushera California.

CHARLIE SHEEN Breakdown or Breakthrough?

STEIN HOUSE

McIlvain, Myra Hargrave iUniverse (302 pp.) $28.95 | $18.95 paper | $3.99 e-book Oct. 18, 2013 978-1-4917-0953-5

Koziey, Paul W. Self (221 pp.) $24.95 paper | Dec. 20, 2013 978-1-927588-31-4

As a commentary on wider cultural norms and preoccupations, Koziey (Educational Psychology/Univ. of Alberta, Canada; How to Grow in Love, 2012) explores the life and psychological meltdown of Hollywood actor Charlie Sheen.

Academic works are often laden with obscure illustrative examples, which makes Charlie Sheen an unusual starting point to explore sexual repression and the unfiltered attainment of self-knowledge. While Koziey’s book makes no claims to be a researched psychological treatise on the subject, the structure of the work is reminiscent of a thoughtful academic work.

Koziey uses Sheen’s publicly recorded bouts of drug use, prostitution, and outlandish statements to support his theory that Western social childhood conditioning perverts a person’s natural sexual impulses and corresponding knowledge of his or her true self. Koziey uses a point scale from -6000 (Belief in Ego) to +96 (Reduced Ego) to map the journeys of those who have undergone a certain set of social conditions to their eventual graduation to a “higher state.” Koziey’s thesis is that the suppression of sexual urges—and the corresponding warping of sex from a natural act to an obsessive, secrecy-shrouded sin—makes for an unhealthy person; while hardly groundbreaking, his framing method is original. “He felt a throbbing aliveness and growing awareness of the infinite possibilities that lie hidden within him, indeed, within us all,” reads a typical passage documenting Sheen’s “transformation.” This interior glimpse into Sheen’s psychological state is, of course, entirely unsupportable, so the value of the work lies both in its entertainment value and the platitudes that knit together the passionate third-person explorations of the actor’s internal struggle. There are a few excellent pieces of advice, including the idea that “we are taught that we must first become the ideal, and then we can really start living.

But ideals are impossible—we always fall short.” This decision to layer theory and observation with celebrity quotes makes for an altogether intriguing read, though the validity of the arguments always feels tenuous, since Koziey conducted no interviews with his subject.

An unusual approach and a vivid, playful style make for amusing (unofficial) interpretive psychology.

Historical fiction is anything but boring in McIlvain’s (Legacy, 2012, etc.) latest work.

The year is 1853; Helga Heinrich, a German immigrant, has just arrived at the port town of Indianola, Texas, with her four children. Her husband, Max, should have been there, too, but he leapt off the pier at the beginning of the voyage and drowned. Although Helga misses Max, she is secretly relieved that she no longer has to deal with his alcoholism. She hopes that with the help of her sister Amelia, who came to Indianola years ago and married a doctor, the children will have a better life. As history sweeps through Texas—including the Civil War, yellow fever, drought, hurricanes, and newfangled inventions like railroads and washing machines—Helga finds herself running Stein House, a prosperous boardinghouse with a diverse clientele that includes a fussy warehouse owner, an abolitionist sea captain and a freed slave. McIlvain faces the South’s history of slavery head-on, contrasting the Germans’ distaste for the practice with the pro-slavery land they now live in. It makes for a fascinating glimpse into a world that isn’t as black and white as it might seem, as the Heinrichs are vehemently against slavery yet still feel fierce pride in and loyalty to their new home of Texas when it secedes from the Union. When Reconstruction occurs, McIlvain skillfully illuminates the complex events that bred resentment in the South, showing everything from the unique points of view of Southerners who are also recent immigrants. Although the novel (which won first place for general fiction from the Texas Association of Authors in 2014) occasionally veers off into a bit of a history lesson, this is no dry textbook— Helga and her family’s successes, hardships and heartbreak show history from a personal perspective.

A wonderful slice of history that animates mid-19th century Texas.

GLOBAL PASSAGE Transformation of Panama and the Panama Canal McMillan, Robert R. CreateSpace (144 pp.) $12.95 paper | $8.88 e-book May 15, 2014 978-1-4910-5125-2

In his memoir, McMillan (Columns, 2007), a former chairman of the Panama Canal Commission, details the canal’s recent history and its transfer from U.S. to Panamanian control.

McMillan, an American, takes a personal approach to history in this book about the evolution of the Panama Canal, published in concert with the canal’s 2014 centennial. |

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Interviews & Profiles

Elizabeth Spann Craig The busiest writer in publishing spills the beans on how she keeps her many series straight

By Sarah Rettger

Over the past five years, Elizabeth Spann Craig has found herself working on up to three mystery series at once: the Myrtle Clover books, which she has self-published after starting the series with mystery book publisher Midnight Ink; the Memphis Barbeque series, published by Berkley, an imprint of Penguin, and written under the pen name Riley Adams; and the Southern Quilting Mysteries, published by Penguin/NAL. She drew on her traditional publishing experience to establish her personal production calendar, where she tracks everything for each book, from the outlining stage to the release date.

But it was the challenge of cover design, more than anything else, that led Craig to establish her production calendar. “I found that I have absolutely no talent in design,” Craig says; she hired a professional artist to create the covers for her Myrtle Clover series.

But she also learned that she needed to schedule the 144

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busy designer months in advance, before she finished writing the book that was being illustrated.

“I’m very focused on what I’m doing,” says Craig, who usually produces between three and four pages a day, scheduling her writing time for maximum productivity. But there is more than just the writing to keep her busy. “I may get edits for one and be drafting another,” so she stays organized, drawing up detailed outlines for each book that have kept her from getting thrown off schedule because of plotting challenges or writer’s block. “I do pretty clean copy,” she adds, which allows her to quickly send manuscripts to her editors.

For the Myrtle Clover books, a series of cozies set in North Carolina and starring the octogenarian mother of a small-town police chief, Craig relies on a group of contractors that includes editors, designers and an accountant. “I didn’t need to do all the things I was doing” when she first explored self-publishing, she says. “I put together a team for myself. I did all the things someone who has a small business should do.” The division of labor allows her to focus on the writing process.

Pretty Is As Pretty Dies, the first Myrtle Clover book, was Craig’s debut, published in 2009. When Midnight Ink rejected the sequel, Craig told herself, “I don’t have anything to lose here,” and began publishing the subsequent books herself. Death Pays a Visit, the seventh book in the series, will be out this fall. “I’m publishing them as fast as I can,” she says, and her growing community of readers appreciates it.

Craig sees a successful series as a joint product of the author and the reader, and she relies on reader feedback to shape Myrtle’s evolution. “The series, at this point, belongs to the readers,” she says. “They may not realize they’re collaborating,” but questions

and comments from readers have become a crucial part of Craig’s writing process. She finds that reader reactions often challenge her to explore new approaches to developing the stories. What she finds particularly surprising is the amount of detail readers want from her.

“We keep hearing readers aren’t interested in back story,” Craig says, but she suspects that minor details and background information take on more importance once readers become invested in the recurring characters who make up a series—and they email her to ask. Some of their questions force her to ponder ideas that she admits, “I’d never actually considered before.” For instance, she realized she had never named the street Myrtle lives on, where much of the books’ action takes place. The street name, along with other tidbits, will be revealed as the series progresses.

For now, Craig has submitted all the books covered by her current publishing contracts and is focused on new Myrtle Clover books—“I’m definitely going to keep doing the Myrtle stuff,” she says. She is considering some new avenues for her writing but has not settled on any future projects. One thing is certain: If she makes a major change in genre or style, she will publish under a new pen name in order to avoid confusing readers who have established their expectations of an Elizabeth Craig book. “I don’t want anyone thinking they’re getting a cozy mystery and then they get zombies or something,” she says.

To Craig, being a hybrid author is ideal, and not only because of the control it allows her over her career path. “I feel like the traditionally published books I’ve done have helped the self-published, and vice versa,” she says. “Readers don’t care, and they don’t notice” whether a book comes from a traditional publisher. “It means I’m doing this well.”

Craig works with an agent who has sold her traditionally published books. The agent is not involved with the self-publishing process, but Craig points to her agent’s role in making this hybrid career possible: “She helps me to make sure my contracts are all clean, with no noncompetes” that would prevent her from putting out work under her own imprint.

Craig is committed to sharing what she has learned about the publishing process with other writers. On her website, she often writes about her

own techniques and strategies for writing, marketing and sales. The one piece of advice she would offer a beginning writer? “Keep your writing goals low and manageable,” she says, and don’t be discouraged by occasional setbacks. “Start out with a blank slate the next day and don’t try to make up for lost time.”

Fellow writers also appreciate the publishing resources she regularly compiles and shares. Developer Mike Fleming collects those resources at the Writer’s Knowledge Base, a free database that Craig says is her way of helping new writers navigate the “wilderness of professionals” in the industry. “It gives them a starting point to put together the team they need,” she says, just like the group she relies on as she prepares the next installment for Myrtle Clover’s fans.

Sarah Rettger is a writer and bookseller in Massachusetts.

A Body at Book Club Craig, Elizabeth Spann Elizabeth Spann Craig (178 pp.)

Price varies | Mar. 31, 2014 978-0-989518-02-4 |

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“[A] surprisingly juicy account about a key segment of commerce in the Sunshine State.” from florida gold

As a member of the canal’s board in the late 1980s and as chairman in the 1990s, McMillan developed a thorough understanding of the canal’s role in both Panamanian politics and in global commerce, which he explains in clear, well-developed prose. Readers unfamiliar with Omar Torrijos, Manuel Noriega and other figures who played a significant role in the canal’s recent history will find plenty of background information to help them follow the changes in government and the implications for the Panama Canal. Much of the narrative focuses on the 1999 transfer of control from the United States to Panama, and McMillan offers persuasive evidence to assure readers that Panama has demonstrated competence in its management of the canal, despite trepidation expressed by many Americans before the transfer. While political concerns, from the 1989 invasion of Panama to the country’s first free elections in 25 years, establish the book’s historical context, McMillan also devotes chapters to the canal’s commercial implications, explaining how the current effort to increase the canal’s capacity will have an impact throughout the shipping industry, driving development in both Pacific and Atlantic ports that can accommodate the larger ships that will be able to travel from one ocean to the other. In many cases, statistics provide evidence of the canal’s continuing importance in global commerce. At times, McMillan’s American triumphalist tone can be grating, as when he criticizes a Panamanian official for choosing to speak in Spanish: “I personally found Foreign Minister [Julio] Linares just plain inconsiderate. He refused to speak any English at a dinner party I once attended—in spite of his ability to speak the language fluently.” But even readers who would prefer a more skeptical approach to the history of U.S. interference in Panamanian affairs will find no fault with McMillan’s accuracy, attention to detail or the unique perspective he provides on a lesser-known moment in history.

An insider’s account of the Panama Canal over the last three decades, full of detail and insight.

FLORIDA GOLD

Morris, Robert Allen Orchid Springs Publishing, LLC (380 pp.) $14.99 paper | $9.99 e-book Apr. 9, 2014 978-0-9960684-0-6 Jack Thomas, a child labor camp survivor and World War II hero, becomes Florida’s leading orange-juice magnate in this work of historical fiction from a citrus-industry executive.

It’s 1988, and Jack Thomas, the 73-year-old CEO of Tropical Juices, finally about to retire, reflects upon his life. The story quickly shifts back to Jack’s birth in 1915 in a turpentine-making camp in rural Florida. The child of 15-year-old Irma Sue, who had been seduced by a son of a local moonshiner, Jack is to be raised as her brother by her parents, Pete and Margaret. Pete, however, is soon killed in a horse-riding accident. Irma Sue and Margaret move to Mobile, Alabama, hoping to earn enough money to bring 146

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Jack, left behind with friends, into a new home. Fortune smiles upon the attractive women, both marrying advantageously. The family reunites briefly before Jack is snatched to work the fields at one of Florida’s illegal child labor camps. With the assistance of local Native Americans, Jack escapes from the camp as a teenager. He returns to Mobile, learns of further family catastrophe, then helps the feds bust up the camps. With seed money from a surprising source, Jack starts an orange-juice business in Florida, serves with distinction in World War II and continually expands his enterprise. By novel’s end, he heads a multibillion-dollar company, although still more family losses make success bittersweet.

Morris, an agricultural economist with over 30 years of experience in the citrus industry, brings plenty of insider knowledge and passion to this fictional work, managing to enliven the sequences featuring Jack’s savvy with concentrate, cartons that don’t leak, and other innovations. His narrative gets a bit overripe at times, given the seemingly never-ending and near-superhuman heroics of his main character as well as a rather melodramatic string of family tragedies. Still, this novel is ultimately highly entertaining, a surprisingly juicy account about a key segment of commerce in the Sunshine State.

Flavorful fictional saga about an entrepreneur involved in the birth and growth of the orange-juice business.

THE METHUSELARITY TRANSFORMATION Moskovitz, Rick CreateSpace (250 pp.) $10.95 paper | $5.99 e-book Apr. 22, 2014 978-1-4975-3248-9

Set on an Earth on the brink of environmental collapse, this near-future sci-fi novel revolves around an intriguing premise: Those wealthy enough can essentially buy immortality through a procedure involving “cognitive migration”—the ability to transfer a person’s identity (memories, personality, etc.) into another body.

When Ray Mettler, a disgraced but still wealthy entrepreneur obsessed with the possibility of dying, and Marcus Takana, a poor and uneducated young man with a penchant for long-distance running, are approached by a mysterious woman from a secret research organization with a bizarre offer, they both quickly agree. The deal is surprisingly simple—and life-changing—for all parties: Takana agrees to give Mettler his body when the businessman eventually dies in return for unimagined wealth, knowledge and an opportunity to live a fulfilling life; Mettler receives a young, healthy body and a chance to live again. The only qualification is that they can never tell anyone about the pact. At first, both men are more than satisfied with their decision: Takana undergoes a procedure that allows him to avoid aging for as long as he lives; he purchases and implants a MELD chip (a vast database of knowledge) and uses his newfound wisdom to eventually create a new kind of grass that turns the tide on global warming and effectively saves

the planet. He falls in love, gets married, has a child and is even named to the prestigious position of minister of discovery of the United Commonwealth of North America. But his terrible secret—that a stranger will soon inhabit his body—begins to wreak havoc on his conscience, and he looks for a way out.

Powered by a fiercely intelligent, fluid narrative, well-developed characters and brisk pacing, Moskovitz’s (Carousel Music, 2004, etc.) novel is remarkably strong. That said, there are some highly improbable plot twists, and worldbuilding could stand to be upgraded; references to hover cars and robotic military, for example, greatly enhance the story’s richness. Also, for such a solid start, the conclusion isn’t as powerful as it could be.

The mind-uploading concept may not be new to sci-fi, but this visionary novel nearly hits it out of the park.

BOOMISH AND THE MAGIC PANCAKE PAN O’Riley, Nick; O’Riley, Tara Illus. by Loveridge, Matt CreateSpace (196 pp.) $9.95 paper | $5.99 e-book May 19, 2014 978-1-4935-0202-8

A middle-grade novel set in a magical land of talking animals and sweet confections.

The O’Rileys’ debut begins on a sad note: Betsy, the Master Sweet Smith of the Lemon Meringue Islands, has just passed away, and the magic pancake pan is about to name her replacement. When the stalwart, unflappable mouse Desdemona learns that the replacement is one Boomish K. Sullivan, she undertakes a journey to track him down. At first, she mistakenly believes him to be the headmaster of Dismal Manor, an orphanage in Briarberry. It turns out that Boomish, a cat, is one of the orphans, and his antics regularly get him and his friends into trouble. On the journey back to the Lemon Meringue Islands, Desdemona attempts to teach Boomish about his new responsibilities, but the cat has a bad habit of not listening. After he gets their ship stuck on a rocky crag in the middle of the ocean, they’re forced to stop at the town of Heckler’s Hunch, where Boomish’s behavior leads to his losing the irreplaceable magic pancake pan to Blackpaw the pirate. Boomish will need to learn to put others before himself in order to recover the pan and save the Lemon Meringue Islands.

This lighthearted adventure moves swiftly along, and readers will likely identify with the fun, imperfect Boomish, whose habit of making up words (“An injustimous has happened to our friend that must be justimicated”) adds to the levity. Black-and-white illustrations help bring the anthropomorphized animals and their funny circumstances to life. Overall, the book is suitable for independent readers or as a read-aloud for younger listeners.

A fun, escapist tale that offers a positive moral.

THE WOMAN WHO LOVED TOO WELL Orsini, David Quaternity Books (250 pp.)

May 14, 2014

In this romantic drama set against the backdrop of World War II, a young woman and loyal member of the French Resistance seduces a Nazi in order to negotiate the freedom of a captive friend—though she finds herself falling

for the enemy.

Simone and Marc Roussillon are a young married couple whose devotion to each other is only rivaled by their devotion to the Allied war effort. Simone serves as a spy, while Marc is renowned for his bravery as a pilot. When their friend JeanClaude Jourdan is captured by the Nazis, they decide to do whatever it takes to get him back—including sending Simone straight into the arms of Gerhard Hauptmann, a German officer sent to court Simone’s nuclear chemist father for the Nazi cause. Simone has her husband’s blessing to trick the German into thinking she loves him in order to convince him to barter for Jean-Claude’s freedom. However, no one anticipated that Simone would fall in love with the dashing Gerhard, who is less a monstrous Nazi than a loyal German conflicted by the Third Reich’s crimes.

The passionate romantic entanglement brings the violence of the battlefield home to them all. Orsini (Bitterness/Seven Stories, 2013, etc.) pens a swiftly paced, action-packed story. Unfortunately, due to the main characters’ borderline-unbelievable physical perfection, athletic prowess, cultured upbringings and wartime heroics, it is hard to sympathize with them. Everyone is gorgeous and adept at horseback riding, skiing, shooting, flying planes and spying. The same flowery descriptive words are used over and over to reiterate these details, particularly the “rugged” attractiveness of both Marc and Gerhard. However, despite these weaknesses, Orsini’s knack for creating high levels of psychosexual drama, jealousy and tension, as well as a number of well-placed plot twists, will likely keep readers engaged right down to the explosive conclusion.

A violently emotional and occasionally over-the-top story of love and war.

THE SENSE OF TOUCH Stories Parsons, Ron Aqueous Books (252 pp.) $16.99 paper | $9.99 e-book Apr. 30, 2013 978-0-9883837-7-7

The quiet plains of the North Country serve as a perfect backdrop for Parsons’ moving debut, a collection of short stories whose characters often live deeply solitary, if not always lonely, lives. |

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“This could signal the arrival of a welcome new voice in the genre.” from imposters of patriotism

In the introductory story, “Hezekiah Number Three,” a young Bangladeshi-American tries to escape the confines of his small-town South Dakota upbringing by going to MIT for college, only to return when his family falls apart. While the reasons for Naseem Sayem’s alienation might be readily attributed to his being the only “caramel-skinned Bangladeshi” in school, Parsons expertly shows how loneliness isn’t only a product of racial tension. In “Beginning With Minneapolis,” for example, Evie Lund Baker finds her marriage to a wheat farmer stifling enough to move to the big city, leaving her husband, Waylon Baker, to tend to the wheat by himself. But Evie is haunted by a sense of disillusionment even in Minneapolis, where she has stretched an interim job “like pie dough across the last eight years.” Now, she “question[s] if she would ever slice through to what was cooking underneath.” Elsewhere, the narrator in the title story, a native of Fort Worth, Texas, attends school at the University of Minnesota so he can get a “clean break in a place where I didn’t own a wisp of history.” But, as the saying goes, you can run but you can’t hide. History chisels these characters’ lives to such an extent that they often become strangers to themselves, having arrived at a station they never envisioned and can’t easily recognize. “Touch is silent,” says a character in “The Sense of Touch.” “And silence is the only way to contemplate infinite things.” The glorious prairie landscape serves to amplify this silence, the starkness a crisp metaphor for the characters’ myriad disappointments. Black Hills National Forest, the endless prairie, even snow-bound Minneapolis—each is a perfect setting for these achingly beautiful stories.

Not all Parsons’ characters face existential questions, though; many are just fine moving along with a steely resolve.

Insightful stories that illuminate the fine line between solitude and loneliness and the limited choices open to people who straddle that divide.

IMPOSTERS OF PATRIOTISM Richardson, Ted Manuscript (353 pp.)

A team races to expose a document that could rewrite our understanding of American history.

Richardson makes his assured fiction debut with a thriller that questions the actions of one of America’s most towering figures. When Matt Hawkins, an antiques dealer in Savannah, Georgia, finds a diary hidden inside an old atlas, he has no idea that it will reveal that George Washington wrote a letter of surrender during the darkest days of the Revolutionary War. The letter was drafted but never reached its intended recipient, thereby allowing the Americans to continue their fight and claw back to victory. Hawkins realizes the implications of this revelation and enlists the help of a local scholar and her history-buff father to help him investigate the diary’s claims and eventually go searching for the letter. At the same time, a rising presidential candidate whose lineage traces directly back to George Washington has staked his campaign on the image of the founding father. When his operatives learn of 148

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Hawkins’ discovery, they dispatch ruthless agents to ensure the documents never become public. The two parties meet with predictably explosive consequences, setting up a few memorable set pieces and giving the story a welcome shot of adrenaline. The narrative toggles between the present and past, revealing the circuitous path the letter took as the main characters gather clues to determine its final resting place. Anyone familiar with the recent glut of historical revisionist thrillers will find a lot that is familiar in Richardson’s novel, but that doesn’t diminish the simple pleasure of a well-told story. This one is complete with genre touchstones like a dashing academic, a deformed villain, a charmingly rumpled hero and a secretive society. The novel is consistently exciting, even if the stakes never feel quite as high as the characters insist, and it’s not until late in the story that it begins to bend its own rules to the breaking point. Readers will find a pageturning read filled with likable characters and enough real history to make it all feel believable. This could signal the arrival of a welcome new voice in the genre.

A fun read from an author worth watching.

ACADEMIA STYLE BOOK A Guide for Writers and Editors Romero, Jaime I. CreateSpace (376 pp.) $15.00 paper | Feb. 18, 2014 978-1-4800-9852-7

A detailed guide to English usage, with a particular focus on discouraging academic writers from unnecessary jargon.

Romero (A Soldier’s Story, 2008) offers a comprehensive reference guide to academic writing. Arranged in alphabetical order, the book provides definitions and explains the subtle differences in meaning that allow authors to write fluently.

Take, for example, his explanation of synonyms for animal: “When the word is applied to a human being in other than a scientific context, the emphasis is on depravity or amorality. Creature does not have this range of possibility in meaning; it refers invariably to all living beings other than plants. When a human being is referred to by this word, however, pity or contempt is usually present.” Many of the book’s recommendations are couched in no-nonsense terms: “Avoid ablative as a big word that impresses no one.” Romero is particularly adamant about encouraging writers to cut words that add length without enhancing meaning: “A proposal is a plan put forward for consideration or discussion by others. It is also an offer of marriage. As in both cases, they must be real or solid. To put concrete, (sic) therefore to precede proposals is redundant.”

Other entries in the lexicon clarify easily confused terms (“He is an ingenious inventor, but disingenuous in his relations”) and spellings (“ ‘Please pass the saccharin,’ she said with a saccharine smile”). A thorough index guides readers through the book’s many cross-references. Occasionally, a suggestion seems unnecessary for contemporary writers; it is unlikely, for instance, that modern academics need to be told to “CHANGE We have some negro students. TO We have some black students.” Such items may be of little use to

THE TORCHBEARER and Other Stories of Borderline Redemption

institutions in the United States, but on the whole, the book can serve as a valuable addition to a writer’s bookshelf.

Much-needed guidance for academics looking to strip their writing of unnecessary words and awkward usage.

Schmidt, Joseph CreateSpace (188 pp.) $14.95 paper | Apr. 18, 2014 978-1-4937-1692-0

THE DEATH OF THE ADORED Schiller, Joel CreateSpace (260 pp.) $9.95 paper | Mar. 17, 2014 978-1-4961-4077-7

An engaging mystery novel about an alluring French woman, the wealthy Los Angeles community she marries into, and the many bizarre incidents that happen while she’s around.

Catherine Thompson, the woman at the center of Schiller’s (The Inheritance of Death, 2012) novel, is a charismatic, charming LA resident who is initially loved by everyone she meets. Thompson, not a native Californian, was born in Avignon, France, and eventually brought to the West Coast by Jeffery Reynolds, an artist she met and married in London. At first, Thompson is happy in LA, and she has a son named Fredrick. However, she is quickly seduced by the riches and glamour of the world around her, and she both begins an affair with her Mexican handyman, Sergio, and divorces her husband in order to find someone richer and more powerful to marry.

Eventually, Catherine gives custody of her son to Jeffery, and she marries her affluent neighbor, Ed, which enables her to begin living the life she always imagined. Catherine and Ed inherit his twin nephews, Mark and Jason, when the boys’ parents die in a house fire, and Catherine is able to open two successful French clothing boutiques in LA, For Women Only. Tragically, however, Catherine’s charmed life turns into anything but. As investigators delve into the events and people surrounding a terrible accident, they discover much more than they bargained for— including a series of bizarre events involving Catherine, such as the deaths of two elderly women in Catherine’s care. Ultimately, everyone involved begins to realize that Catherine might not be an innocent victim; maybe her fairy-tale life wasn’t as perfect as it seemed. Schiller’s suspenseful, well-crafted novel has plenty of intrigue. While there is nothing particularly smart or mindblowing about the mystery’s plot or its resolution, the engaging story will keep readers guessing until the end. Also, as the author is an established Hollywood production designer and art director, the book offers an entertaining insider’s glimpse into some of the intricacies and little-known secrets of high-society Los Angeles.

An enjoyable novel in the style of a classic whodunit mystery set against the backdrop of glamorous Hollywood.

Twenty-one short stories—some surreal, others unsettling, several ineffably beautiful.

A feline creature morphs into a young girl. A carefree game of tag becomes fatal. Daylight arrives in the middle of the night. Rod Serling could have given a Twilight Zone intro to each story in this collection. Disturbing as many of them are, they tend to focus on the saving grace of redemption and on the transformation that comes with achieving true power. In “The Torchbearer,” the wonderful opening story, it’s the power to accept love at all costs; in “The Fountain,” it’s the power to feel young again; in “The Moon,” it’s the power to accept death; in “Light And Shadow,” it’s the power to see quite literally into the “inner workings of nature”; and in “The Party,” one of the collection’s best stories, it’s the power of an uninvited guest to kick-start a neighborhood gathering. Set mostly in the present day, the stories’ many varied locations range from Tribeca to Kansas to an enchanted garden. Narrators vary too—in age, sex and authority—but all experience a change that may take readers by surprise. As the titular character states in “Julie’s Big Day,” “[t]hings were fine before, but today they’re different.” The changes can be internal or external, as bodies are altered and faces morph. Having some characters appear so grotesque seems unwarranted, however, as does the inclusion of italic codicils at the ends of several stories. Similarly, the endings of a handful of other pieces seem to unsatisfyingly peter out, as in “The Windmill.”

Not so, however, with the book’s last story, “The Hat.” As with the collection’s opening piece, in which a tightrope artist wows spectators by carrying a flaming torch at midnight across Niagara Falls, the final piece also involves a torch—but it’s a torch song, sung by a disheveled, tooth-missing gentleman captivating the raucous crowd of a midtown lounge.

A winding journey into a wondrous land of imagination.

BLOOD TIDES

Sturgill, C.R. DreamHeart Books (330 pp.) $12.99 paper | $4.99 e-book Feb. 28, 2014 978-0-9885653-3-3 In Sturgill’s (Dreams from the Heart: Tales of Hope & Love, 2013) adventure novel, a young kidnapped boy is raised among pirates while his brother becomes a naval officer and swears vengeance against the marauders. |

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“There’s plenty of room for a sequel or two here, and they would surely be welcomed.” from majestic hollow

In the early 19th century, 6-year-old Henry Wellington is traveling from England to the United States with his father and older brother, James, on a merchant ship when pirates besiege the vessel. Capt. Bloodstone kills Henry’s father but takes Henry, believing the hawk-shaped birthmark on Henry’s chest makes him “marked by the gods.” James, meanwhile, is saved from the fiery wreckage by the passing USS Enterprise.

Henry, now called Hawk, remembers little about his family and grows into a skilled and formidable pirate, but when the teenager meets and falls in love with Anna, a young prostitute, he considers leaving behind the only life he’s really known.

Abandoning the pirate life isn’t so easy, however, especially when the quartermaster, aptly named Diablo, is envious of the crew’s admiration of Hawk and would rather see the boy dead than be Bloodstone’s successor, and the U.S. Navy’s New Orleans Squadron, including Lt. James Wellington, who presumes his brother is dead, has been established specifically for hunting pirates. The book doesn’t skimp on the hallmarks that pirate fans look for—there are plenty of eye-patches, peg legs and the occasional “Arrr!” But pitting the two estranged brothers against each other adds substantial depth, particularly since Henry’s birthmark is so discernible and makes the scene in which James recognizes him almost inevitable.

There’s also an effective mingling of the notions of good and bad; Henry and other pirates, like his friend Wesley, the cook, look squeaky clean next to Bloodstone and Diablo, who are far more bloodthirsty, while James’ relentless pursuit of pirates recalls Bloodstone’s attack in the beginning, as the Squadron kills men and leaves ships in flames. Henry and Anna are smitten rather quickly, but their burgeoning relationship opens the door for a much more riveting quandary, as Henry must decide between his love for his woman or his love of the sea. The story has its slower moments, most notably with the young couple, but lovers of the genre will be appeased with copious action scenes featuring guns, swords, duels and cannon fire.

Nails the traits of a classic pirate tale, with romance and family melodrama to hold the story together.

MAJESTIC HOLLOW

Veil, Laurel CreateSpace (222 pp.) $9.00 paper | $8.00 e-book Apr. 8, 2014 978-1-4928-3124-2 Three preteens discover the secret spooky history of their small town in this debut YA novel.

Twelve-year-old Joseph Sebastian leads a ho-hum life in the town of Majestic Hollow. His older brother, Cameron, is his parents’ favorite; his younger brother, Sammy, is the baby of the family. But Joseph is stuck in the middle, trying to be noticed while also staying out of trouble. He dreams of the day he can leave his sleepy town, until he visits his local cemetery and meets Cole, a teenage runaway. The two quickly form a bond, and Cole tells Joseph about a 150

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secret room in a mausoleum, where they find dust that can make a person fly. However, the boys soon encounter Belzore, an evil, lizardlike creature who claims that the boys have something he wants. Cole and Joseph discover that they’re both connected to three families—the Sebastians, the Martins and the Dallangers— that have been protecting Majestic Hollow for generations. Can the kids, with the help of classmate Vidonia Finkle, figure out exactly what Belzore wants and save their tiny hamlet while also fighting off Belzore’s monsters? Veil’s (Psychomanteum, 2014, etc.) novel gets off to a slow start; in the beginning, Joseph seems like a typical preteen brat who’s mean to his brother, gets detention in school and can’t wait to get the heck out of Majestic Hollow.

But alongside the supernatural motif, something wonderful happens: Joseph grows up, and this personal growth becomes one of the most satisfying aspects of the novel. The boy learns that the world doesn’t revolve around him and that putting other people first can be just as rewarding as looking out for himself. Overall, Veil’s vividly imaginative tale is an entertaining romp through monster lore, with vampires, werewolves and witches all making appearances. It reads as a love letter to the classic horror stories, refreshed for a modern young audience with plenty of folklore and a few cloves of garlic. There’s plenty of room for a sequel or two here, and they would surely be welcomed.

A lively, riveting monster tale that’s fit for children and adults alike.

DARK SEED No One Knows What Evil Grows

Verigin, Lawrence Promontory Press Inc (310 pp.) $17.79 paper | $7.99 e-book | Dec. 1, 2013 978-1-927559-17-8 In Verigin’s debut thriller, a journalist takes on the story of his career when he agrees to write a book exposing the corruption and deadly dealings of an agri-

business giant.

Disenchanted with his work at the Seattle News, Nick Barnes is intrigued when he is approached by Dr. Carl Elles, a former scientist at agricultural company Naintosa. Although Nick had just written a positive article on Naintosa’s genetically engineered vegetables, the doctor convinces him that not all is as it seems with these supercrops, and the two arrange a meeting to look at Elles’ notes. When Nick finds him dead in his office, he can’t shake the thought that something is amiss: An imposing man claiming to be a police lieutenant arrives on the scene well before any other police officers, and a gray car seems to be following his every move. Nick doesn’t start putting the pieces together until he meets with Morgan Elles, daughter of the late doctor. Assuring Nick that she has copies of her father’s notes, she convinces him to continue with the project and write the exposé. Nick agrees, and the two set out on an international game of cat and mouse with the thugs who will do anything to stop them. Throughout the story, Verigin’s pacing is masterful and adept. He imbues

Nick with self-deprecating humor and intelligence, lending him a credibility that makes even the occasional red herring a little more fun. Readers may find the perfectly beautiful Morgan less nuanced, and while Nick’s attraction to her is understandable, some may tire of his frequent descriptions of her outfits. Dialogue is lively and realistic, an asset in maintaining the suspense.

The level of conspiracy in the story, however, might seem overthe-top; still, most readers will be quick to overlook it and get on with the ride. Verigin has left the door wide open for a sequel, and this entree should earn him a base of eager fans.

Strong writing and a swift plot make for a solid debut.

MUSIC LESSONS

Walker, Frances Frances Walker (198 pp.) $12.95 paper | $7.95 e-book Mar. 20, 2014 978-0-615-95432-5 In this debut work of fiction, Grace Stevens, a promising piano player from a struggling family, goes on a journey of love and loss before making her way back home to the foothills of east Tennessee.

Growing up in the 1960s in Grantville, a small mill town in Tennessee, Grace loves to play the piano, thumping out tunes by ear. Her mother, Arlene, her aunt Doris and her beloved Grammie decide that Grace must get piano lessons from the affluent widow, former Richmond belle and one-time classical pianist who lives in a gracious mansion in the rich part of town.

Grace’s father, Hoyt, objects to this idea, preferring to spend cash on a rifle or booze, so the women scrape together the money in secret. While initially crushed by her teacher’s pronouncement that she must unlearn all her bad habits and begin anew, Grace becomes a diligent student, earning the admiration and patronage of “Miss Bertie” and eventually a music scholarship to attend Vanderbilt University in Nashville. At college, Grace forges an unlikely friendship with her privileged roommate, expands her horizons as a pianist for hire, and engages in a romance that further pushes her into her family’s legacy of alcohol abuse. By novel’s end, Grace reconnects to her talent, treasures the network of support she’s blessed with and builds a new life for herself back in Grantville. Debut author Walker infuses a rich Southern flavor into what is certainly a heartfelt tale. First-person narrator Grace is in the tradition of such wisechild observers as Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) and the eponymous heroine in Kaye Gibbons’ Ellen Foster (1987). While her derailment from her music studies is somewhat disappointing, and the cause for it rather clichéd, Grace’s realization of what’s really important, and her appreciation of the roles that others have played in her life, is truly touching and transcendent. Unlike many authors working in the genre, Walker also conveys nuanced sympathy for her male characters beside an emphasis on sustaining sisterhood.

Compassionate coming-of-age novel replete with colorful Southern characters and charm.

THE SECRET SOCK CLUB Werchinski-Yates, Janine Illus. by Conway, Michael P. Lucky Sock Publishing (29 pp.) $15.99 | Oct. 1, 2013 978-0-9855689-9-3

A child’s sock encounters some surprising adventures in debut author Werchinski-Yates’ delightful picture book.

The future looks grim for Andy the sock when a mistake at the factory leaves him missing several stitches. But he’s in luck: The Baby Sock Maker stitches him up with an unusual stripe of pale blue thread. The blue stitches quickly distinguish him as a lucky sock when he arrives at the home of Joey Abernathy and his family, and the bonds he shares with his fellow socks make for plenty of giggles and good times.

Life as a sock can be tough, though. Yet no matter if it’s sweaty feet, static cling or the ever present danger of the Abernathys’ puppy, Andy meets the challenges of his new life with an upbeat attitude and a relentless sense of fun. However, there’s one obstacle Andy can’t seem to overcome: The blue thread holding him together is falling out, and he’s in danger of being thrown out if the hole gets too big. He’s heard rumors of a “secret sock club” in which socks can seek refuge, but he must find it before it’s too late—and his friends may be counting on him to save the day. Perfect for anyone who wonders where lost socks go, this quirky, endearing story is sure to charm young readers.

The satisfying plot hits the tried-and-true notes of a winning children’s book—Andy’s initial rejection, strong friendships, an ability to save the day—but the length and large amount of text per page make this a cumbersome read-aloud and a challenging independent read for young children. For those who can persevere, though, this whimsical take on the life of a sock becomes a memorable, entertaining read held together by gentle humor.

A creative, playful tale about the fate of missing socks.

VALHALLA REVEALED Wright, Robert A. CreateSpace (450 pp.) $17.95 paper | $4.99 e-book Apr. 29, 2014 978-1-4947-7244-4

Wright’s (Beyond Ultra, 2011) historical novel continues the saga of the Hoffman and Ortega families as various countries try to track down a German submarine and a man searches for his missing brother.

In 1946, former OSS agent Paul Hoffman still wonders about his brother, Hans, a German U-boat officer who disappeared near the end of World War II along with their uncle, Walter, of the German navy. The Nazis would like to know the whereabouts of the men as well, since their Operation Valhalla failed largely because key information about atomic and biological weapons disappeared—information that was under |

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“In a delightful debut, Younge pens a charming story worthy of young readers’ curiosity.” from sammy ringtail’s adventure to the big city

Walter’s supervision. Former members of the now-dissolved Gestapo decide to keep tabs on the family, including Paul’s brother-in-law, Harvard Law School student Jack Kurtz; and Paul’s cousin, Spanish naval officer Alberto Ortega. Meanwhile, the CIA enlists Paul and Jack to verify or refute the existence of a German nuclear reactor, which leads them to intel on Operation Valhalla, and Spanish Capt. Luis Carrero orders Alberto to track down Paul’s father, Karl, who might lead him to the muchdesired Nazi information. Wright’s novel, which spans the years 1946 to 1979, is just as epic in scope as his previous book but decidedly more focused. The first installment, which covered 1915 to 1945, spent the bulk of its story establishing the two families’ histories before delving into the repercussions of war, but this latest is an ideal merging of drama, espionage and historical fiction. Paul’s driving force—finding his brother—is established on the first page and never wavers. The historical backdrop is remarkably detailed, as the characters live through different presidential administrations, the Kennedy assassination, and the Korean and Vietnam wars. Also, this time around, the family drama takes place in the midst of a complex story; Paul, for instance, must deal with the realization that double agents are on American soil as he confronts his slowly developing affection for the widowed Anita, who happens to be his cousin. Wright also offers invigorating action scenes, such as when Paul and Jack narrowly escape from secret police in Prague.

The second installment’s streamlined plot results in a crisper, more engaging thriller.

This Issue’s Contributors # Adult Maude Adjarian • Mark Athitakis • Joseph Barbato • Adam benShea • Amy Boaz • Jeffrey Burke Lee E. Cart • Sara Catterall • Dave DeChristopher • Kathleen Devereaux • Ruth Douillette • Bobbi Dumas • Daniel Dyer • Lisa Elliott • Julie Foster • Peter Franck • Bob Garber • Lauren Gilbert • Devon Glenn • April Holder • Aileen Jacobson • Robert M. Knight • Christina M. Kratzner • Paul Lamey Louise Leetch • Judith Leitch • Peter Lewis • Eric Liebetrau • Elsbeth Lindner • Georgia Lowe • Janet Matthews • Virginia C. McGuire • Don McLeese • Gregory McNamee • Carole Moore • Clayton Moore • Liza Nelson • Mike Newirth • John Noffsinger • Mike Oppenheim • Jim Piechota • Gary Presley • Lloyd Sachs • Leslie Safford • Bob Sanchez • Michael Sandlin • William P. Shumaker • Linda Simon • Elaine Sioufi • Sofia Sokolove • Margot E. Spangenberg • Andria Spencer • Matthew Tiffany Claire Trazenfeld • Carol White • Chris White • Kerry Winfrey • Marion Winik Children’s & Teen Alison Anholt-White • Elizabeth Bird • Marcie Bovetz • Kimberly Brubaker Bradley • Sophie Brookover • Louise Brueggemann • Connie Burns • Timothy Capehart • Ann Childs • Julie Cummins GraceAnne A. DeCandido • Dave DeChristopher • Elise DeGuiseppi • Lisa Dennis • Andi Diehn Carol Edwards • Robin L. Elliott • Brooke Faulkner • Omar Gallaga • Laurel Gardner • Carol Goldman • Faye Grearson • Melinda Greenblatt • F. Lee Hall • Megan Honig • Julie Hubble • Jennifer Hubert • Shelley Huntington • Kathleen T. Isaacs • Laura Jenkins • Betsy Judkins • Deborah Kaplan Joy Kim • K. Lesley Knieriem • Megan Dowd Lambert • Angela Leeper • Peter Lewis • Wendy Lukehart • Meredith Madyda • Joan Malewitz • Jeanne McDermott • Shelly McNerney • Kathie Meizner • Daniel Meyer • Lisa Moore • Deb Paulson • John Edward Peters • Susan Pine • Melissa Rabey • Rebecca Rabinowitz • Kristy Raffensberger • Nancy Thalia Reynolds • Melissa Riddle Chalos Amy Robinson • Lesli Rodgers • Erika Rohrbach • Ronnie Rom • Leslie L. Rounds • Ann Marie Sammataro • Mindy Schanback • Katie Scherrer • Hillary Foote Schwartz • Stephanie Seales • John W. Shannon Karyn N. Silverman • Robin Smith • Karin Snelson • Rita Soltan • Jennifer Sweeney Deborah D. Taylor Indie Sarah Alender • Paul Allen • Poornima Apte • Kent Armstrong • Becky Bicks • Ian Correa • Simon Creek • Lindsay Denninger • Holly DeRubeis • Steve Donoghue • Joe Ferguson • Jonathan Fullmer Shannon Gallagher • Alissa Grosso • Justin Hickey • Julia Ingalls • Leila Jutton • Kelly Karivalis • Isaac Larson • Maureen Liebenson • Kathleen O’Dell • Florence Olsen • Mary Jo A. Pham • Matt Phillips Jim Piechota • Judy Quinn • Sarah Rettger • Ken Salikof

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SAMMY RINGTAIL’S ADVENTURE TO THE BIG CITY Younge, Jennetta FriesenPress (48 pp.) $20.99 paper | Jan. 24, 2013 978-1-4602-2477-9

During excellently illustrated misadventures beyond his forest home, a plucky baby raccoon learns that he should listen to his mom or risk getting trapped in sticky situations.

In a delightful debut, Younge pens a charming story worthy of young readers’ curiosity. “Raccoons are very mischievous animals,” and Sammy Ringtail “is no different.” He lives with his mom and his two siblings, Riley and Reggie, in an oak tree not too far from a metropolis called the Big City. Although he’s the youngest raccoon, “he wanted to prove that he could do everything even better than his brother and sister.” He seizes the opportunity to do exactly that after a visit from his uncle Jack. One evening, after listening to his uncle’s tall tales, Sammy disobeys his mom and escapes from his house to see the city firsthand. Alone, wide-eyed and naïve, Sammy survives with sheer luck and a little help from his loved ones. In this book, Younge creates lovable characters out of backyard critters often branded as nuisances. Through Sammy’s family, the author indirectly explains how and why raccoons forage in many suburban backyards. Younge is a skillful storyteller, so dialogue throughout the book is engaging and easy for youngsters to follow. Readers will also enjoy the book’s imaginative layout, which features cute raccoons and their paw prints walking across the pages. Moreover, the appealing color palette—blues, earthy browns, black, and splashes of yellow and silver light—provides a realistic sense of the forest at night, enhancing the book with a rascal charm. Though the writing is on par with the digital illustrations, it stops rather abruptly. For reasons that are unclear, the book ends before Sammy ever even reaches the Big City. Perhaps it’s the author’s intention to close this particular parable with a halfhearted cliffhanger; after all, a number of readers will demand an encore. Younge’s writing holds great promise, and Sammy’s bold antics could be spun into an entertaining series.

A lively bedtime story for young adventurers.

WOMEN, FEMINISM, AND ISLAM

Zeerak, Adeel CreateSpace (194 pp.) $14.50 paper | $4.90 e-book Apr. 12, 2014 978-1-4922-3550-7 Zeerak (Islam: A Superior System of Life, 2012) considers the relationships between men and women and the role women play in Islam and the world.

“Both men and women are the wonderful creation of the Almighty God,” Zeerak writes. It is on this premise that the entire book rests. After a brief tour of feminist schools of thought and relevant issues, Zeerak formulates the ideal role

women play in society. He is firmly committed to the idea of equity over equality—that is, he believes men and women to be complementary to one another rather than strictly equal, and he believes tying women’s power to traditionally masculine roles is detrimental to women as a group. While acknowledging that emotional, sexual and physical violence against women is endemic across the world, Zeerak takes great pains to outline the ways in which the texts of Islam protect women against societal ills: “The objective of Islamic modest dressing is not to restrict the liberty of women, but to protect them from harm and molestation.” Not particularly interested in the third wave of Western feminism, Zeerak isn’t keen on the second wave: “This debauchery of society produced many social evils like increased divorce rates, increased single parent families, neglected children, sexual exploitation, objectification, unwanted pregnancies, and the spread of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).” Gender relations are an incredibly complex topic, Zeerak admits, and he pursues the best outcome for society based on his strong faith, guided by tenets not found in Western feminism. In the chapter “What is Islam?” Zeerak offers a concise, well-developed snapshot of what Islam means to him. Using relevant passages from the Quran and the Hadith, he concludes that Islam is a positive force for women. Islam, he says, gives women and girls the rights to get an education, own property, inherit, choose their own husbands and work outside the home. Readers looking for Western feminist ideals in Islam may be disappointed, but those who are open to an Islamic perspective on gender relations will find plenty of material to contemplate.

A worthwhile read that corrects several misconceptions.

accounting matters more than charismatic leadership, the authors write. The handbook is filled with tables showing, for example, how to keep track of action items and how to create “change design” dashboards. Offering coaching tips on communicating effectively with higher-ups, selecting project management software and conducting productive meetings, the book has an explicit bias against employees with advanced degrees who lack multidisciplinary business skills, despite their MBAs. It also takes aim at conflict-of-interest practices among corporate executives. Some executives who are compensated for meeting performance benchmarks are setting goals and objectives that are too easy to reach, thereby causing their companies to stagnate and lose market share. It’s hard to imagine a more disciplined regimen for business recovery than the one outlined by this coaching duo, who demand a seven-days-a-week commitment of time and thought for a stretch of two to three years. Although the book follows a fictional midcareer business manager through two years of coaching, many of the narrative details—e.g., “Chuck took a sip of his mineral water”—aren’t great additions to the book’s valuable business insights, including those related to outsourcing. Chuck criticizes managers who, instead of learning how to manage complex business challenges, become “addicted” to outsourcing: “Maybe that’s okay for the retiring generation, but what about the younger generations who need to work and feed their families?”

Tough-love business management advice that never loses sight of the big-picture economy.

MANAGE IT RIGHT! Intrapreneurial Skills to Succeed in Any Organization

K i r k us M e di a LL C #

Zorea, Carlos; Zorea, Dee Manage It Right! Press (346 pp.) $29.95 paper | $9.99 e-book Mar. 12, 2014 978-0-9913927-0-4

A demanding road map for turning around a failing business.

Fifty years of corporate management experience are distilled in this practical handbook for business managers, especially for those tasked with saving a business that is bleeding revenue and fending off bruising publicity. In their debut volume, the Zoreas—father and son—coach middle managers on fixing internal management problems. The senior author’s engineering background is evident in the book’s clear, methodical approach to information gathering and analysis, all succinctly summarized in a questionnaire included as an appendix. The basis of good management, according to the Zoreas, is the unglamorous but necessary business of “problem finding, problem solving, implementation, monitoring, and control.”

In turning around a failing business, accurate profit-and-loss

President M A RC W I N K E L M A N Chief Operating Officer M E G L A B O R D E KU E H N Chief Financial Officer J ames H ull SVP, Marketing M ike H ejny SVP, Online Paul H offman # Copyright 2014 by Kirkus Media LLC. KIRKUS REVIEWS (ISSN 1948- 7428) is published semimonthly by Kirkus Media LLC, 6411 Burleson Road, Austin, TX 78744.

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INDIE

Books of the Month CB Anderson

STARTING UP SILICON VALLEY

A triumphant, probing debut that promises both literary and mass appeal.

Corporate history with enough drama for a movie.

RIVER TALK

Katherine Maxfield

Chronicles: The Library of Illumination

MURDER BY MISRULE Anna Castle

Carol Pack

A laugh-out-loud mystery that will delight fans of the genre.

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Come for the literary sights and sounds, stay for Pack’s miraculously finetuned imagination.

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Appreciations: John O’Hara’s Appointment in Samarra Turns 80 B Y G RE G OR Y M C NAMEE

Photo courtesy Estate of John O’Hara

When Nick and Nora Charles enjoy a cocktail in Dashiell Hammett’s Thin Man yarns, they become effusive. When they enjoy several, they become wittier still and lots of fun.

When John O’Hara’s characters enjoy a cocktail, they look into their glasses, brood and fight.

Edmund Wilson, O’Hara and Hammett’s contemporary, grouped both among a cluster of “hard-boiled” writers whom he considered unworthy of much serious attention. Today, 80 years after the publication of what might be O’Hara’s best book, Appointment in Samarra, it’s clear both that the hard-boiled label has merit, though O’Hara had less pulpy leanings than that label suggests, and that his grim novel has stood up well to the passing decades. (In June, Penguin Classics reissued O’Hara’s Ten North Frederick, which means that that National Book Award–winning novel from 1956 is back in print for the first time in 25 years.)

O’Hara’s enduring project was to capture his Pennsylvania hometown in the same unforgiving way that Sherwood Anderson had put his Ohio haunts between covers. In O’Hara’s Gibbsville, the smart set drinks by the gallon while counting the money they’ve made from coal—beg pardon, anthracite, for “People outside Pennsylvania do not know that there is all the difference in the world between the two kinds of coal, and in the conditions under which anthracite and bituminous are mined.”

If they have any money left, that is, for this is the heart of the Depression, and Julian English, Cadillac dealer and country-clubber, isn’t having a good time of it. Money, the sole gauge of worth in Gibbsville, is in short supply. Though Julian is young, well-educated and a player, he’s miserable, and over the pages of O’Hara’s short novel—its title an allusion to an Iraqi proverbial tale about death—he decides to prove it by behaving very badly.

First, he tosses a drink into the face of a well-connected investor to whom he’s in debt. Or does he? Opening with a steamy scene that kept the censors hopping in its day, Appointment settles into a hallucinatory haze, told by an eminently untrustworthy narrator, so that we’re not sure if Julian merely imagines the assault. What’s certain is that he then tries to pick up a gangster’s girlfriend. By this time, he’s roaring drunk—comments one onlooker, in part in admiration, “He can drink all night without showing it. When he shows it, boy, you can be pretty sure he has damn near a quart under his belt”—and so, in a way, can be forgiven for his transgression.

But gangsters aren’t the forgiving type, and neither are slighted wives, which brings Julian to his next insult: attacking a hero of World War I who, though missing an arm, figures he’s still a pretty good match for his swaying opponent. So does Julian, who, after punching Froggy Ogden—there’s a name for you—goes rushing off into the night to meet the destiny he’s been bound for all along.

Appointment in Samarra, also reissued recently by Penguin Classics, shocked the readers of its time, as did the books with which O’Hara followed, such as Butterfield 8 and Pal Joey. It seems tamer 80 years on, but it’s highly readable, a rougher cousin of The Great Gatsby and Of Mice and Men as a document of the last time the country seemed to be mired in a crisis that wouldn’t quit.

Gregory McNamee is a contributing editor at Kirkus Reviews. |

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THE UNKNOWN ASSASSIN presents The Top 5 Traits of Highly Successful Secret Agents

The Program is a classified organization that trains teens to become secret agents for the government. Think you’re ready to become an Unknown Assassin?

Here are 5 traits of successful agents in The Program.

You are young.

You’re comfortable with people.

Agents are recruited in their early teens for

An agent specializes in being a chameleon,

a rigorous training program that includes

blending into every situation, effortlessly

combat, psychological tactics, surveillance,

playing any social role. Can you walk into a

and counter-espionage. Think of yourself

group of people and instantly make friends?

as an Olympic athlete training to win a gold

Do you get along with athletes, computer

medal in being a secret agent. There’s a lot

nerds, theater kids, and everyone in between?

to learn in a very short time. The sooner

A good agent is not judgmental. He or she

you start The Program, the greater the

is willing to do what it takes to get close to

likelihood of success.

his or her target.

You’re tough.

You have no home.

You may have to fight to defend your life

An agent has no identity and no family

and the lives of your fellow agents. It’s not

responsibilities. If you like to hang out with

enough to specialize in one fighting style.

your brother or sister, take vacations with

You’ll need to adapt yourself to multiple

your parents, or relax at home, this is not

martial arts styles, fighting opponents from

a job for you. In fact, if you have a home,

different countries and backgrounds. Mixed

that’s going to be a problem. Allegiance is to

martial arts is preferable. Knowing every

The Program only. We are your new family.

martial art is even better.

Welcome.

You’re good at math.

You’re going to need it. First, you have to study the entire high school curriculum in a year. Then you’ll move on to lessons in how to plan escape routes, break into classified online servers, and prevent terrorist attacks.

On missions you’ll do calculations on the fly, without a computer, in dangerous situations.

In this job, math will save your life.

978-0-316-19969-8 LittleBrownLibrary.com

LittleBrownSchool

@ LBSchool

978-0-316-19967-4